More troubles for the press in Azerbaijan

Reporters Without Borders is chock-full of sobering press-freedom news from Azerbaijan these days:

• "Baku appeal court judge Rasul Safarov issued a ruling on 11 July confirming the Sabail district court’s decision to keep newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev in the national security ministry’s detention centre. Fatullayev is serving a 30-month sentence for libel but new terrorism charges were recently brought against him. Four employees of Gundelik Azerbaijan (one of the two newspapers he edits) - Famil Jafarli, Jeyhun Nagiyev, Aynur Elgunesh and Neymat Huseynli - have meanwhile been questioned as witnesses by the national security ministry. ... So far, more than 20 people working for Gundelik Azerbaijan and Realny Azerbaijan (Fatullayev’s other newspaper) have been interrogated."

• "Reporters Without Borders condemns comments made by President Ilham Aliev in which he told a group of police academy graduates that he 'banned sanctions' against policemen responsible for violence against journalists covering the November 2005 legislative elections. 'I will always support the police,' he said. ... Policemen beat a total of 14 journalists during a demonstration by the opposition alliance Azadlig on 9 October 2005. Two of them, Ramiz Nadjafli, the editor of the weekly Boz Gurd, and Idrak Abbasov, a correspondent of the daily Ayna-Zerkalo, had to be rushed to hospital."

• As reported on June 13, "The number of journalists who have taken this step (seeking asylum at embassies in Baku) in the past two and a half weeks now stands at 24. The embassies at which asylum requests have been made include those of Germany, Britain and the United States."