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AZERBAIJAN FLOUTS FREE PRESS ON EVE OF EUROVISION
By Annette Langer
SPIEGEL ONLINE
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0%2c1518%2c824634%2c00.html
04/02/2012
They are frequently harassed, sometimes beaten and even filmed while
having sex: The risks to journalists in Azerbaijan are many. Ahead of
the Eurovision Song Contest, the authoritarian government in Baku has
shown no signs of relenting. The country's opposition says foreign
journalists should beware.
For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will
only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are
currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information,
please click on the "i" symbol.
On March 7, Khadijah Ismailova received an anonymous letter containing
an envelope with six photos of an "intimate nature" as she calls
it. Included was this message: "Slut -- behave or you will be
dishonored." Only one week later, a video of the journalist having
sex with her boyfriend was posted on the Internet. At the same time,
two newspapers that are loyal to the government accused her of lax
morals and indicated where the videos could be found.
Ismailova sits astride a chair decorated with an inlay pattern,
her arms draped over its back. Outside the house, which belongs to
a friend, looms the skyline of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan,
where the Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in just a
few week's time. Ismailova has dark circles under her eyes; recent
weeks have left her visably exhausted. "The government humiliated me
and transformed me into an object, but society has stood up for me,"
she said in a solemn tone.
Ismailova has ceased receiving guests in her apartment since she
realized it had been bugged with cameras and microphones -- in the
living room, maybe in the bathroom, but above all in the bedroom. The
journalist has no doubt that high-level civil servants are behind the
film: "They thought I'd back down, but that was a miscalculation. If
I had taken one step back, I would have been done," she said. Her
stubbornness paid off: Even media loyal to the government distanced
themselves from showing the secretly filmed videos or photos.
Partisans, Not Journalists
Ismailova filed a complaint over the intrusion into her private life
and the investigation is ongoing. She does not have high expectations:
"The courts don't care about evidence," she says. "They will make
a political decision in the end." She says she plans to follow the
appeals process as far as possible before turning to the European
Court of Human Rights.
The smear campaign against Ismailova is all the more devastating
given that she is an unmarried woman in a Muslim society. Although
the government professes secularism, forbids the wearing of head
scarves in schools and demonstratively opposes the construction of
mosques, religious morality remains influential among the largely
Shiite populace. As such, Khadijah Ismailova was surprised that even
Muslim leaders backed her up: "They understood that it is not about
something personal but about politics."
"We are not journalists. We are partisans," says Vidadi Memmedov,
a long-time editor at the government-critical daily Azadliq, which
also received the compromising photos of Ismailova but refused to
print them. Time and again he and his colleagues have been followed
and threatened, he says. "We know who will arrest, blackmail, hit or
even kill us. But we're fighting for freedom of the press. We believe
that is our responsibility."
Every evening Ismailova goes on air on "Radio Liberty." The seasoned
reporter has especially attracted attention for her investigative
work. In several publications she has sought to uncover how the
presidential family has been secretly privatizing state companies. "I
focused too closely on the daughters of Ilham Aliyev," she says in
reference to the president. "They didn't like that." Most recently she
reported on Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva's apparent holdings, via companies
registered in Panama, in the telephone company Azerfon.
'Sex With the Lights Off'
Despite the democratic shortcomings in Azerbaijan, human rights
advocates agree that the press should nonetheless travel to Baku
for the Eurovision Song Contest in order to get a first-hand view
of the situation. But Ismailova warns that foreign journalists will
most likely be spied upon. "Everyone should worry," she says. "Big
Brother is everywhere."
And they don't seem terribly concerned about hiding it. During an
hour-long interview conducted by this journalist with an opposition
leader in a cafe, a "couple" at a nearby table followed every word.
Several security officials in civilian clothing took up positions in
front of the door and at least two people continued the observation
on the streets outside. An additional person took pictures.
"Sex only under the blankets and with the lights off" is the advice --
meant seriously -- given to visitors to the Eurovision Song Contest
by the activist group Free Youth, which is critical of the government.
The public exposure of journalists and those opposing the regime in
Azerbaijan is not a new phenomenon. Shortly before the parliamentary
elections of 2010, the television station Lider aired a spot called
"The Naked Truth about the Opposition," an uncensored sex video of
the publisher of the opposition newspaper Azdaliq. The television
station belongs to a cousin of President Aliyev.
Colleagues of Ismailova have repeatedly been targeted by such
campaigns. "When the first videos with my friends appeared, I put up
a tent in my apartment to at least have a little bit of privacy. Later
I realized how grotesque that was and I took it down."
Azerbaijan has been a member of the European Council since 2001 and
signed the Human Rights Convention. The ruling family has oriented
itself toward the West and has sought to modernized their country,
even to the point of seeking to build a kind of new Dubai on the
shores of the Caspian Sea. But the regime has yet to abandon archaic
methods of control.
Not Giving Up
Educated young Azerbaijanis are now taking to the streets in protest
against the regime. One of the best known among them is the 21-year-old
blogger and political activist Jabbar Savalan. He frequents the
opposition cafe Araz, where the police and regime critics gather
in unusual harmony to smoke and eat warm chickpeas with butter to
loud music.
In February 2011, he was arrested for drug possession on his way home
from a meeting and sentenced to three years in prison. He says that
security officials planted a gram of heroin on him. Following pressure
exerted by the European Parliament and human rights organizations
such as Amnesty International, he was released early in December.
The arrest did not come as a surprise, given that Savalan had
published an article critical of the Aliyev clan, but the unjust
charges affected him deeply nonetheless. "The time in prison made me
strong," he says. "I want our people to wake up, realize their rights
and fight for them."
Khadijah Ismailova is not thinking about giving up either. "My anger,"
she says, "is greater than my fear."
From: A. Papazian
By Annette Langer
SPIEGEL ONLINE
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0%2c1518%2c824634%2c00.html
04/02/2012
They are frequently harassed, sometimes beaten and even filmed while
having sex: The risks to journalists in Azerbaijan are many. Ahead of
the Eurovision Song Contest, the authoritarian government in Baku has
shown no signs of relenting. The country's opposition says foreign
journalists should beware.
For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will
only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are
currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information,
please click on the "i" symbol.
On March 7, Khadijah Ismailova received an anonymous letter containing
an envelope with six photos of an "intimate nature" as she calls
it. Included was this message: "Slut -- behave or you will be
dishonored." Only one week later, a video of the journalist having
sex with her boyfriend was posted on the Internet. At the same time,
two newspapers that are loyal to the government accused her of lax
morals and indicated where the videos could be found.
Ismailova sits astride a chair decorated with an inlay pattern,
her arms draped over its back. Outside the house, which belongs to
a friend, looms the skyline of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan,
where the Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in just a
few week's time. Ismailova has dark circles under her eyes; recent
weeks have left her visably exhausted. "The government humiliated me
and transformed me into an object, but society has stood up for me,"
she said in a solemn tone.
Ismailova has ceased receiving guests in her apartment since she
realized it had been bugged with cameras and microphones -- in the
living room, maybe in the bathroom, but above all in the bedroom. The
journalist has no doubt that high-level civil servants are behind the
film: "They thought I'd back down, but that was a miscalculation. If
I had taken one step back, I would have been done," she said. Her
stubbornness paid off: Even media loyal to the government distanced
themselves from showing the secretly filmed videos or photos.
Partisans, Not Journalists
Ismailova filed a complaint over the intrusion into her private life
and the investigation is ongoing. She does not have high expectations:
"The courts don't care about evidence," she says. "They will make
a political decision in the end." She says she plans to follow the
appeals process as far as possible before turning to the European
Court of Human Rights.
The smear campaign against Ismailova is all the more devastating
given that she is an unmarried woman in a Muslim society. Although
the government professes secularism, forbids the wearing of head
scarves in schools and demonstratively opposes the construction of
mosques, religious morality remains influential among the largely
Shiite populace. As such, Khadijah Ismailova was surprised that even
Muslim leaders backed her up: "They understood that it is not about
something personal but about politics."
"We are not journalists. We are partisans," says Vidadi Memmedov,
a long-time editor at the government-critical daily Azadliq, which
also received the compromising photos of Ismailova but refused to
print them. Time and again he and his colleagues have been followed
and threatened, he says. "We know who will arrest, blackmail, hit or
even kill us. But we're fighting for freedom of the press. We believe
that is our responsibility."
Every evening Ismailova goes on air on "Radio Liberty." The seasoned
reporter has especially attracted attention for her investigative
work. In several publications she has sought to uncover how the
presidential family has been secretly privatizing state companies. "I
focused too closely on the daughters of Ilham Aliyev," she says in
reference to the president. "They didn't like that." Most recently she
reported on Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva's apparent holdings, via companies
registered in Panama, in the telephone company Azerfon.
'Sex With the Lights Off'
Despite the democratic shortcomings in Azerbaijan, human rights
advocates agree that the press should nonetheless travel to Baku
for the Eurovision Song Contest in order to get a first-hand view
of the situation. But Ismailova warns that foreign journalists will
most likely be spied upon. "Everyone should worry," she says. "Big
Brother is everywhere."
And they don't seem terribly concerned about hiding it. During an
hour-long interview conducted by this journalist with an opposition
leader in a cafe, a "couple" at a nearby table followed every word.
Several security officials in civilian clothing took up positions in
front of the door and at least two people continued the observation
on the streets outside. An additional person took pictures.
"Sex only under the blankets and with the lights off" is the advice --
meant seriously -- given to visitors to the Eurovision Song Contest
by the activist group Free Youth, which is critical of the government.
The public exposure of journalists and those opposing the regime in
Azerbaijan is not a new phenomenon. Shortly before the parliamentary
elections of 2010, the television station Lider aired a spot called
"The Naked Truth about the Opposition," an uncensored sex video of
the publisher of the opposition newspaper Azdaliq. The television
station belongs to a cousin of President Aliyev.
Colleagues of Ismailova have repeatedly been targeted by such
campaigns. "When the first videos with my friends appeared, I put up
a tent in my apartment to at least have a little bit of privacy. Later
I realized how grotesque that was and I took it down."
Azerbaijan has been a member of the European Council since 2001 and
signed the Human Rights Convention. The ruling family has oriented
itself toward the West and has sought to modernized their country,
even to the point of seeking to build a kind of new Dubai on the
shores of the Caspian Sea. But the regime has yet to abandon archaic
methods of control.
Not Giving Up
Educated young Azerbaijanis are now taking to the streets in protest
against the regime. One of the best known among them is the 21-year-old
blogger and political activist Jabbar Savalan. He frequents the
opposition cafe Araz, where the police and regime critics gather
in unusual harmony to smoke and eat warm chickpeas with butter to
loud music.
In February 2011, he was arrested for drug possession on his way home
from a meeting and sentenced to three years in prison. He says that
security officials planted a gram of heroin on him. Following pressure
exerted by the European Parliament and human rights organizations
such as Amnesty International, he was released early in December.
The arrest did not come as a surprise, given that Savalan had
published an article critical of the Aliyev clan, but the unjust
charges affected him deeply nonetheless. "The time in prison made me
strong," he says. "I want our people to wake up, realize their rights
and fight for them."
Khadijah Ismailova is not thinking about giving up either. "My anger,"
she says, "is greater than my fear."
From: A. Papazian