Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: burmaCPJ. The case was pending in late year.In November, CPJ honored Fatullayevwith its International PressFreedom Award.Genimet Zakhidov, AzadlygIMPRISONED: November 10, 2007On November 7, 2007, an unknowncouple assailed Zakhidov, editor ofthe pro-opposition daily Azadlyg,on a Baku street. Zakhidov told localreporters that the woman startedscreaming as if he had insulted her;a moment later, the man tried to attackhim. With the help of passers-by,the journalist said, he was able to fendthem off. But the couple later filed acomplaint with police, claiming thatthe editor had assaulted them.Authorities acted with remarkablespeed: On November 10, 2007, ajudge at the Yasamal District Court ofBaku placed Zakhidov in pretrial detentionafter police had interrogatedhim for nine hours. He was chargedwith “hooliganism” and inflicting “minorbodily harm.”Zakhidov had long been at oddswith authorities because of his workfor one of Azerbaijan’s most criticalnewspapers. He is also the brotherof prominent satirist Sakit Zakhidov,who was also jailed at the time on politicizedcharges. Sakit Zakhidov wasreleased in April 2009, having servedall but two and a half months of athree-year prison term.On March 7, 2008, a Baku districtcourt sentenced Genimet Zakhidovto four years in jail, despite contradictorytestimony from prosecution witnessesand the absence of any evidenceof “bodily harm,” the journalist’s lawyer,Elchin Sadygov, told CPJ. Eyewitnessesfor the defense were barred from testifying,he said. Zakhidov was given themaximum penalty allowed by law.In September 2009, the AzizbayovDistrict Court in Baku rejected a defensebid for a lighter punishment, theindependent news Web site KavkazskyUzel reported. The court’s stated reason:Zakhidov had been reprimandedafter he refused to join a volleyballgame with inmates, the Baku-basedInstitute for Reporters’ Freedom andSafety reported.Adnan Hajizade, freelanceEmin Milli, freelanceIMPRISONED: July 8, 2009Baku police detained Milli, 30, publisherof the blog ANTV, and Hajizade,26, a video blogger and coordinatorof the Azerbaijani youthmovement Ol! (Yes!), after the tworeported that they had been attackedat a local restaurant.Milli and Hajizade were debatingpolitics with friends when two unknownmen interrupted their conversationand started a brawl, they said.When the bloggers went to report theassault to local police, they were arrestedfor “hooliganism,” a criminal chargethat carries up to five years in jail. A secondcharge of “inflicting bodily harm”was added in August. On November11, a Sabail District Court judge pronouncedthe bloggers guilty, sentencingMilli to two and a half years in jail andHajizade to two years.Shortly before their detention,Milli and Hajizade had posted videosketches that criticized Azerbaijanigovernment policies. They interviewedlocal residents and postedtheir opinions online, sharing themthrough YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,and other sites. Among the issues discussedon their blogs were education,corruption, and poor infrastructurein Azerbaijan, according to multiplenews reports and CPJ sources.Domestic and international rightsgroups condemned the arrests of Milliand Hajizade as staged by authoritiesin retaliation for the critical contentof their blogs. According to multiplesources, a satirical video the bloggersproduced and posted on YouTube inlate June may have prompted their arrests.The video criticized the country’simportation of donkeys, supposedly athigh prices. The sketch depicted a fictionalpress conference at which Hajizade,wearing a donkey suit, talkedto a group of Azerbaijani “journalists.”Sardar Alibeili, NotaFaramaz Novruzoglu(Faramaz Allahverdiyev), NotaIMPRISONED: October 8, 2009Editor-in-Chief Alibeili and reporterNovruzoglu were sentenced to threemonths in prison on charges of insultingthe chairman of the pro-governmentorganization Azadlyg Harakatchilari(Freedom Movement) in six Nota articles,according to local press reports andCPJ sources. The articles, published inFebruary and March, accused the groupand its chairman, Tahmasib Novruzov,of being government mouthpieces, accordingto CPJ sources.In October, the Baku Court of Appealupheld a trial court’s guilty verdict.Alibeili and Novruzoglu, who isalso known as Faramaz Allahverdiyev,were taken to prison immediately afterthe appellate verdict was read.Novruzoglu and Alibeili had beentargeted with criminal defamationcomplaints in the past. In January2007, Novruzoglu was given a twoyearprison term and Alibeili an 18-month corrective labor sentence oncharges of defaming Interior MinisterRamil Usubov in a series of articlesthat discussed friction and alleged corruptionin the ministry. Novruzoglu’shealth deteriorated in prison and, aftera barrage of domestic and internationalprotests, he was released on a presidentialpardon in December 2007.BURMA: 9Ne Min (Win Shwe), freelanceIMPRISONED: February 2004Ne Min, a lawyer and a former stringerfor the BBC, was sentenced to 15 yearsin prison on May 7, 2004, on chargesthat he illegally passed information to“antigovernment” organizations oper-290291