{"id":698,"date":"2014-08-22T14:47:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T14:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=698"},"modified":"2014-08-22T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T14:47:20","slug":"osce-representative-alarmed-by-brutal-attack-on-journalist-in-azerbaijan-warns-of-continuing-deterioration-of-media-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=698","title":{"rendered":"OSCE Representative alarmed by brutal attack on journalist in Azerbaijan, warns of continuing deterioration of media freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSCE Newsroom<\/em><\/p>\n

VIENNA, 22 August 2014 \u2013 OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovi\u0107 today said she was alarmed by yesterday\u2019s violent attack on journalist Ilgar Nasibov in Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

\"Dunja<\/a>
Dunja Mijatovic , Representative on Freedom of the Media OSCE and Nils Mui\u017enieks, Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe during Press Meeting with Azerbaijani Journalists held on November 8, 2012, in Baku. Photo: Mehman Huseynov. facebook.com\/osce.rfom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI call on the authorities to conduct a swift and thorough investigation of this brutal attack on Nasibov and bring those responsible to justice,\u201d Mijatovi\u0107 said. \u201cThis criminal act has an enormous chilling effect on free expression and free media and it could inspire future crimes against members of the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasibov, a journalist actively contributing to several media outlets in Azerbaijan, including Turan News Agency and Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, was assaulted on 21 August by a number of individuals in his office at the Resource Centre for Development of NGOs and Democracy in Nakhichevan. Nasibov sustained serious injuries, including concussion, broken cheekbones, nose and ribs. He is still in a very critical condition and receiving medical treatment at the hospital. The attackers also smashed and destroyed property and office equipment.<\/p>\n

Nasibov has been prosecuted, threatened and physically attacked several times in the past. In December 2007, he was arrested and convicted to a one-year suspended sentence for libel charges. In July 2011, Nasibov, together with other journalists, was assaulted and briefly detained by the police. Both issues were raised by the Representative with the Azerbaijani authorities.<\/p>\n

Following a recent crackdown on free media voices in Azebaijan, Mijatovi\u0107 also expressed concern about continuing harassment of the Institute for Reporters\u2019 Freedom and Safety (IRFS). In addition to frozen bank accounts and confiscation of property earlier this month, the IRFS office was closed by law enforcement authorities and its staff is now being interrogated (see www.osce.org\/fom\/122481<\/a> and www.osce.org\/fom\/122389<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ongoing persecution of independent journalists, media activists and freedom of expression advocates must stop immediately. The authorities in Azerbaijan have to do their utmost to stop these practices,\u201d Mijatovi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n

Mijatovi\u0107 said that her Office was ready to support Azerbaijan in fulfilling its media freedom commitments and that a visit to Baku in the near future would help address these issues.<\/p>\n

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org\/fom<\/a>, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM<\/a> and on facebook.com\/osce.rfom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OSCE Newsroom VIENNA, 22 August 2014 \u2013 OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovi\u0107 today said she was alarmed by yesterday\u2019s violent attack [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}