Tweet
PACE DEPUTY PREVENTED FROM BEING PHOTOGRAPHED IN BAKU
Source: Panorama.am
10:37 24/01/2013 " COMMENTS
Debates of the reports on Azerbaijan in PACE on January 23 were an
opportunity for Swedish MP Ms Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin to tell
about what once happened to her in Baku.
"When I was visiting Baku, police officers approached me as I was
being photographed near the hotel, asked why I was being photographed
and tried to take my camera from me. They left me alone only when I
showed my diplomatic passport. But they could have arrested me for
being photographed. This is the picture of the situation in that
country," a Panorama.am reporter quoted her as saying.
So, the Swedish MP said, the report on Azerbaijan says nothing strange:
journalists and photographers are arrested, freedom of speech is
unprotected.
"This country's authorities lack the political will to fulfill their
commitments towards the Council of Europe, commitments they should
have fulfilled as soon as they joined the Council of Europe," said
Ms Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin.
Another MP, Lukas Reimann (Switzerland), criticized Ilham Aliyev's
government. According to him, during the World Economic Forum in Davos,
the Azerbaijani authorities bought large areas for advertisement,
which read: "Azerbaijan is a country of future."
According to the Swiss MP, this advertisement is strange in the
context of the reports on Azerbaijan.
"While it would be accepted as positive if the authorities of this
country stopped political persecutions. Azerbaijan should have
solved this issue and only then called itself a country of future,"
Mr Reimann concluded.
Source: Panorama.am
10:37 24/01/2013 " COMMENTS
Debates of the reports on Azerbaijan in PACE on January 23 were an
opportunity for Swedish MP Ms Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin to tell
about what once happened to her in Baku.
"When I was visiting Baku, police officers approached me as I was
being photographed near the hotel, asked why I was being photographed
and tried to take my camera from me. They left me alone only when I
showed my diplomatic passport. But they could have arrested me for
being photographed. This is the picture of the situation in that
country," a Panorama.am reporter quoted her as saying.
So, the Swedish MP said, the report on Azerbaijan says nothing strange:
journalists and photographers are arrested, freedom of speech is
unprotected.
"This country's authorities lack the political will to fulfill their
commitments towards the Council of Europe, commitments they should
have fulfilled as soon as they joined the Council of Europe," said
Ms Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin.
Another MP, Lukas Reimann (Switzerland), criticized Ilham Aliyev's
government. According to him, during the World Economic Forum in Davos,
the Azerbaijani authorities bought large areas for advertisement,
which read: "Azerbaijan is a country of future."
According to the Swiss MP, this advertisement is strange in the
context of the reports on Azerbaijan.
"While it would be accepted as positive if the authorities of this
country stopped political persecutions. Azerbaijan should have
solved this issue and only then called itself a country of future,"
Mr Reimann concluded.