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REPORTERS CONDEMN AZERBAIJANI LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT BODY'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MASS MEDIA
ARMENPRESS
19:08, 7 September, 2011
"Reporters without Borders" organization released an official
statement on the expulsion of Azerbaijani reporter Hafez Hasanov
from Nakhichevan.
Armenpress reports citing the organization's official website that
the statement says Reporters Without Borders 'is appalled by the
unacceptable escalation in harassment of the media by the authorities
in Nakhchivan, an autonomous Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and
Iran, especially last week's expulsion of Yafez Hasanov, Radio Free
Europe / Radio Liberty reporter.
Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in
plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials
normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to
return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot
in Nakhchivan during the next month, "it will cost you," they told him.
"After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan's authorities
are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already
complete repressive arsenal against the media," Reporters Without
Borders said. "Their latest invention, deporting a journalist
from his own country to one that criminalizes journalism, shows a
complete contempt for legal appearances and a feeling of complete
impunity. How far will they have to go before the central government
and the international community decide to do something to half this
escalation?"
Hasanov had gone to the Julfa district of Nakhchivan to investigate
Turac Zeynalov's death in detention, a story that the local authorities
are trying at all costs to suppress because it exposes the cruelty
of the methods they use. Hasanov's abductors told him not to meddle,
took his passport and returned it with an exit stamp when they reached
the border. Once inside Iran, Hasanov managed to return to Baku by
taxi the next day. This entailed a degree of risk as RFE/ RL has been
classified as an "illegal organization" by the Iranian authorities.
From: Baghdasarian
ARMENPRESS
19:08, 7 September, 2011
"Reporters without Borders" organization released an official
statement on the expulsion of Azerbaijani reporter Hafez Hasanov
from Nakhichevan.
Armenpress reports citing the organization's official website that
the statement says Reporters Without Borders 'is appalled by the
unacceptable escalation in harassment of the media by the authorities
in Nakhchivan, an autonomous Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and
Iran, especially last week's expulsion of Yafez Hasanov, Radio Free
Europe / Radio Liberty reporter.
Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in
plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials
normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to
return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot
in Nakhchivan during the next month, "it will cost you," they told him.
"After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan's authorities
are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already
complete repressive arsenal against the media," Reporters Without
Borders said. "Their latest invention, deporting a journalist
from his own country to one that criminalizes journalism, shows a
complete contempt for legal appearances and a feeling of complete
impunity. How far will they have to go before the central government
and the international community decide to do something to half this
escalation?"
Hasanov had gone to the Julfa district of Nakhchivan to investigate
Turac Zeynalov's death in detention, a story that the local authorities
are trying at all costs to suppress because it exposes the cruelty
of the methods they use. Hasanov's abductors told him not to meddle,
took his passport and returned it with an exit stamp when they reached
the border. Once inside Iran, Hasanov managed to return to Baku by
taxi the next day. This entailed a degree of risk as RFE/ RL has been
classified as an "illegal organization" by the Iranian authorities.
From: Baghdasarian