SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Azerbaijan handed a five year prison sentence for possessing drugs, inciting hatred and treason to Hilal Mamedov, editor of the Talyshi Sado newspaper, a Talysh-language newspaper in the south of the country.
International human rights and media lobbyists said Azerbaijani authorities were using the courts to lock up the editors of newspaper that didn’t suit their agenda.
“I am saddened to see that the hostile environment for free media in Azerbaijan has not improved but is rather growing, as yet another journalist has received a lengthy prison sentence today,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the media representative for the OSCE, Europe’s governance lobby group.
The authorities have said that Hilal Mamedov was trying to destabilise the country. They have long been suspicious of the Talysh minority, a group of roughly 100,000 people who live along the border with Iran. The interior ministry has released a statement accusing Mamedov of undermining Azerbaijan’s security with inflammatory articles in the newspaper. It also accused him of spying for Iran.
Five years ago the then-editor of Talyshi Sado, Novruzali Mamedov (no relation to Hilal Mamedov) was also imprisoned on similar charges. He died in prison. Media groups said that he had been denied adequate medical treatment.
Azerbaijan has a poor media rights record and in her statement, the OSCE’s Ms Mijatovic said this was worsening in the run up to the Oct. 9 presidential election.
Ms Mijatovic may be right. Opposition journalists in Baku have been harassed and imprisoned while pro-government journalists have received new apartments.
Hilal Mamedov’s imprisonment is different, though, and it should be viewed as part of the dispute between the Talysh and the Azerbaijani state rather than through central politics.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)