By Natasha Schmidt
In recent years, Azerbaijan’s media freedom has been crippled by President Ilham Aliyev’s regime, which targets journalists, activists and ordinary citizens critical of the government. In this environment, Azadliq, one of the country’s remaining independent news sources, continues to carry out vital work, reporting on corruption and the power of a very elite group of people with close ties to the president.
Originally launched by one of the main opposition parties in 1989, Azadliq became an independent newspaper in the mid-1990s. Its motto to “serve the truth” means it has a strong commitment to reporting on matters that directly affect the everyday lives of citizens.
On 20 March, Azadliq’s hard work and long-standing commitment was honoured at the Index on Censorship Free Expression Awards, where it won the Guardian journalism prize. In accepting the award, Rahim Haciyev, Azadliq’s editor-in-chief, spoke about the hostile environment for journalists in Azerbaijan, and particularly for Azadliq staff, who have been intimidated, physically assaulted and kidnapped.
Speaking to Journalism for Change, Haciyev said that many of the issues the newspaper and its website champion come straight from the Azerbaijani public. Ordinary people call in or email their experiences of local corruption and government incompetence, poor standards in healthcare and education and inequalities within their communities. Often Azadliq will publish video footage and photographs provided by the public on their website. Readers tell them: “these are our problems; we want you to cover them”. It’s particularly important for them to publish stories coming out of the country’s provinces, bringing news from around the country to a larger audience.
Azadliq aims to report on issues that are largely invisible in other media in Azerbaijan. This year, there have been a disturbing number of suicides or attempted suicides by self-immolation. In December 2013 and January 2014, there were at least four cases of people setting themselves alight, including war veteran Zaur Hasanov, who died after setting himself on fire in protest against the misconduct of a leading government official. Two other war veterans did the same after the government refused to allocate land to them. Without this land, these men and their families were rendered homeless.
“Property rights are a major problem,” Haciyev says. Recently, a woman contacted Azadliq saying that, because she had lost her home after being evicted due to government-led building development plans, she saw no option but to commit suicide. Azadliq published an article both online and in their print edition about the woman’s situation, and the government was forced to respond. In that case, it took measures to provide the woman with adequate housing. Others have not been so lucky.
This is a subject that, for the most part, Azerbaijani media ignores, not least because it shines a light on a government unwilling to address some of the country’s most serious social problems.
Azadliq reports fearlessly in other areas, too, analyzing the role of the courts and commenting on the country’s legal system in general. It receives a number of complaints from the public about the country’s failed and corrupt justice system.
There is a real problem with corruption in education, too. Teachers regularly bribe students, offering them good grades in exchange for money. People are afraid to speak up and the taboo around the topic is getting worse, says Haciyev. Recently students staged a protest against ongoing corruption at Baku’s State University.
“In public hospitals people don’t get free treatment, although the government claims that everything is fine,” says Haciyev. With most social services, there is a vast gulf between what the government says and what members of the public using the services have experienced.
But Azadliq and other independent news outlets face considerable hardship. The Aliyev regime continues to jail journalists and political activists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there are currently eight journalists in prison, including Avaz Zeynalli, editor of Khural onine newspaper and freelance journalist Faramaz Novruzoglu, accused of causing civil unrest via a Facebook campaign.
Prominent investigative journalists like Khadija Ismayilova are repeatedly harassed and those using social media to galvanize support for social or political change are detained, assaulted and charged with a range of offences, including drugs charges, on dubious grounds. Civil society organizations face enormous pressure: in one recent case, on 31 March, Hasan Nizami Huseynli, head of an NGO working with young people, was charged with “hooliganism”. Protesters are regularly arrested and the right to peaceful assembly is repeatedly violated in the country: “unsanctioned” demonstrations are not tolerated and any legal demonstrations are forced to take place in remote locations outside the city center of the capital, Baku.
In recent months, Azadliq has been under constant threat of closure due to increased pressure from the government. Following last year’s presidential elections in October, the government banned the sale of the print version in metro stations around Baku, meaning a considerable loss in audience – and in revenue. Later that month, Azadliq’s finances were frozen in retaliation for failure to pay libel damages in a case against the paper. There were demands, too, for it to settle another libel case in one payment instead of instalments. In addition, the government regularly applies pressure on businesses not to advertise in any of the country’s independent publications or on their websites.
Internet access in Azerbaijan continues to grow, so Azadliq’s model of incorporating citizen reports – many of them submitted and published online – into its news coverage holds some promise for news distribution across the country. Other independent news sites, such as Obyectiv TV, are doing the same.
Yet as any analysis of the country’s media environment will show, those who use any form of media, including social media, to criticize the government in any way face serious repercussions.
And, as Haciyev pointed out recently, Azadliq faces very serious financial difficulties. It will need the substantial support of members of the public, inside and out of Azerbaijan, to help it sustain a strong future and continue its vital work.
