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THE TELEGRAPH: WHY IS A CRUCIAL CONFERENCE ON INTERNET FREEDOM TAKING PLACE IN A DICTATORSHIP?
Panorama.am
08/11/2012
It's of deep concern that a conference on internet freedom is being
held in one of the world's most tawdry dictatorships, writes Mike
Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship, according to The
Telegraph.
"For Azerbaijan's President Aliyev, the hosting of the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) in Baku is yet another propaganda coup in a year
marked by the Eurovision Song Contest and the launch of Azerbaijan's
bid for Baku to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The regime is slick -
it spent an estimated $500 million on Eurovision alone, hires the
smoothest spin doctors, and takes British MPs on all expenses paid
trips to see "the real Azerbaijan" (as opposed to the Azerbaijan
where their Parliament contains not a single opposition MP)," writes
the author.
According to the author, Azerbaijan is also a country with a track
record of persecuting internet activists, such as bloggers Emin Milli
and Adnan Hajizada.
"Elnur Majidli, a Strasbourg-based blogger and internet activist,
was threatened with a 12 year jail sentence for "inciting hatred"
after setting up Facebook groups that facilitated rare public protests
in Azerbaijan during 2011. Because of his online activism, police
officers turned up at his family home. His father was held for eight
hours by the police, then swiftly lost his job in the state shipping
firm Caspar, all because his son set up a Facebook group. Majidli
junior cannot return to Azerbaijan," writes Harris.
The article says that state TV broadcasts programmes that allege
Facebook and Twitter cause criminality among Azerbaijan's young
people. Just last year, the country's chief psychiatrist warned that
social media caused mental disorders.
"This is the country that will host the IGF (a United Nations
initiative) and help set the framework for the future of internet
freedom. While a bitter irony for brave people like Majidli, it's
more worryingly symbolic," says the author.
As the Arab Spring has shown, writes the author, the internet
is helping to free people across the world from the iron grip of
autocracy. The leaking of cables by Tunisian dissident website Nawaat
exposed the corruption of former President Ben Ali and helped topple
his dictatorship. The internet made it easier than ever before for
activists from across the Middle East to organise during the Arab
Spring, hence the former Egyptian government attempting to hold back
the revolutionary tide by turning it off.
"So it's of deep concern that the Internet Governance Forum, one
the most important global conferences on internet freedom, is being
held in Azerbaijan - one of the world's most tawdry dictatorships,"
writes Harris.
Panorama.am
08/11/2012
It's of deep concern that a conference on internet freedom is being
held in one of the world's most tawdry dictatorships, writes Mike
Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship, according to The
Telegraph.
"For Azerbaijan's President Aliyev, the hosting of the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) in Baku is yet another propaganda coup in a year
marked by the Eurovision Song Contest and the launch of Azerbaijan's
bid for Baku to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The regime is slick -
it spent an estimated $500 million on Eurovision alone, hires the
smoothest spin doctors, and takes British MPs on all expenses paid
trips to see "the real Azerbaijan" (as opposed to the Azerbaijan
where their Parliament contains not a single opposition MP)," writes
the author.
According to the author, Azerbaijan is also a country with a track
record of persecuting internet activists, such as bloggers Emin Milli
and Adnan Hajizada.
"Elnur Majidli, a Strasbourg-based blogger and internet activist,
was threatened with a 12 year jail sentence for "inciting hatred"
after setting up Facebook groups that facilitated rare public protests
in Azerbaijan during 2011. Because of his online activism, police
officers turned up at his family home. His father was held for eight
hours by the police, then swiftly lost his job in the state shipping
firm Caspar, all because his son set up a Facebook group. Majidli
junior cannot return to Azerbaijan," writes Harris.
The article says that state TV broadcasts programmes that allege
Facebook and Twitter cause criminality among Azerbaijan's young
people. Just last year, the country's chief psychiatrist warned that
social media caused mental disorders.
"This is the country that will host the IGF (a United Nations
initiative) and help set the framework for the future of internet
freedom. While a bitter irony for brave people like Majidli, it's
more worryingly symbolic," says the author.
As the Arab Spring has shown, writes the author, the internet
is helping to free people across the world from the iron grip of
autocracy. The leaking of cables by Tunisian dissident website Nawaat
exposed the corruption of former President Ben Ali and helped topple
his dictatorship. The internet made it easier than ever before for
activists from across the Middle East to organise during the Arab
Spring, hence the former Egyptian government attempting to hold back
the revolutionary tide by turning it off.
"So it's of deep concern that the Internet Governance Forum, one
the most important global conferences on internet freedom, is being
held in Azerbaijan - one of the world's most tawdry dictatorships,"
writes Harris.