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BAKU: International Crisis Group: "Attacks On Media Hurt Karabakh Co

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  • BAKU: International Crisis Group: "Attacks On Media Hurt Karabakh Co

    INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: "ATTACKS ON MEDIA HURT KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION"

    Today, Azerbaijan
    URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/33169.html
    Nov 27 2006

    The Azerbaijani government's aggressive moves to silence independent
    media and the leading opposition party last week not only raise
    obvious human rights problems but will have a detrimental effect on
    efforts to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

    On 24 November, the authorities took the country's first, biggest and
    most professional independent TV and radio broadcaster, ANS, off the
    air. The same day, police forcibly evicted the key opposition party,
    the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, two opposition dailies Azadlig
    and Bizim Yol and the Turan information agency from their Baku offices.

    The hasty government actions were taken after proceedings that lacked
    transparency and political neutrality. The parties were unable to
    appeal before the decisions were implemented. Following a pattern
    of harassment of Azerbaijan's independent journalists since 2003,
    Friday's events once again put into question Azerbaijan's commitment
    to protecting freedom of speech and upholding the rule of law.

    To facilitate the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the
    International Crisis Group has called for the opening of a genuine
    popular debate on the conflict. ANS has tended to take a hard line
    on Nagorno-Karabakh, but it was open to a range of opinions and kept
    popular opinion informed of developments related to the issue. The
    closure of ANS will stifle the public discussion and information
    sharing that is so essential to acceptance by Azerbaijani society of
    any resolution to the conflict.

    Azerbaijan's international partners - the EU and its member states,
    the U.S., the OSCE, the Council of Europe and others - should in
    unequivocal terms call on the Government of President Ilham Aliev to
    restore media freedoms protected in the Azerbaijani Constitution and
    in commitments made as a member of the OSCE and the Council of Europe,
    and as a recent signatory of an EU Neighborhood Action Plan.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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