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Despite holding Council of Europe chairmanship, Aliyev government steps up its campaign to silence independent voices, reads an article on the site of the Reporters Without Borders international organization.

“The main opposition newspaper in Azerbaijan, Azadlig, was forced to halt publication once again on 1 August. This new blow to media pluralism took place as the authorities stepped up their campaign to eradicate critical voices in Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

The state-owned distribution network, GASID, has failed to transfer some of the proceeds of its sales back to the newspaper. The company now owes Azadlig more than 70,000 manats (67,000 euros). Deprived of this income, the newspaper has accumulated debts of 20,000 manats (19,000 euros) with its printers, another state-owned company.

“Azadlig is once again the victim of the pernicious strategy of financial censorship being implemented by the authorities,” said Johann Bihr, head of the Reporters Without Borders Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk. “The government of Ilham Aliyev is in the process of completing its campaign to obliterate pluralism in defiance of the values of the Council of Europe, of which it is the current chairman. The international community cannot stand idly by while the last critical voices are silenced in Azerbaijan.”
“We know that the fight for basic freedoms has no borders and that dictators all use similar methods to crack down on these freedoms. But we shall not give in,” stated Ganimat Zahid, the editor of Azadlig who has immigrated to France.

Like Azadlig, the Russian-language independent newspaper Zerkalo was also forced to stop publishing, the statement reads.
It is also noted that recently several famous human rights activists – Rasul Jafarov, Leyla Ynus and her husband Arif Ynus – have been arrested. Earlier the authorities had arrested another famous journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov.

Numerous NGOs and their heads have also come under pressure, including having their bank accounts frozen. These include organizations that support the media such as the Media rights Institute (MRI), the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the Azeri section of International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX).

The article also notes that Azerbaijan is ranked 160th of 180 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

At the last session of the PACE in Strasburg Rasul Jafarov and several other human rights activists made a report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. A month ago, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE in Baku Jafarov and other activists held a public hearing on civil society issues. Both of these events have caused a backlash in Baku. Authorities got furious with the decision of PACE to appoint a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Human rights activist Leyla Yunus was arrested on 30 July in her house yard. A number of charges were brought up against her among them that of state treason. According to the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) of Azerbaijan as of 21 May 2014 there were 130 victims of political repressions in Azerbaijan: 41 of which are prisoners of conscience and 89 are political prisoners.