Index on Censorship

The regime has gone to great lengths to silence the satirical commentary of Ali Ferzat, but the celebrated cartoonist has no intention of letting the censors keep him down.

Since Eurovision ended, critical journalists and activists have been targeted and the authorities have adopted repressive legislation aimed at further limiting free expression rights, says the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan.

IFEX-TMG alarmed by the recent attacks on freedom of expression, in particular against artistic expression, in the name of religion, including seizure of paintings.

Over 80 groups around the world call on the authorities to free human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and writers, some of whom have been detained incommunicado; and request help from UN Special Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

The report reveals an alarming rise in the amount of government requests to remove political content from the Internet.

Ahead of a court of appeal hearing on 28 May, IFEX-TMG urges judiciary to quash the seven-year prison terms handed down to Ghazi Ben Mohamed Beji and Jaber Ben Abdallah Majri for online publishing.

UPDATE: The president of IFEX member Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on 16 August. Many other human rights defenders remain in prison, including BCHR’s founder Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and his daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja.

On 18 April, journalist Idrak Abbasov was brutally attacked while he reported on the demolition of houses in his village. Rebecca Vincent recently visited him at his home outside Baku.