Azerbaijan May 3, 2004

H.E. Ilham Aliyev
President
Office of the President
19 Istiglal kuc
Baku 370066
Azerbaijani Republic
Fax: (011.994.12) 98.33.28

Your Excellency:

We write to protest your country@quot;s part in the continuing worldwide abuse of press freedom. On this day, World Press Freedom Day, there are to the best of our knowledge 193 journalists imprisoned in the jails of 29 countries, most of them solely for having done their jobs. The Azerbaijani Republic is one of the 29, and we are informed that you have been holding two of them since 2003 — Rauf Arifoglu and Sadig Ismailov.

Mr. Arifoglu, editor of the opposition daily, Yeni Musavat , and vice president of the opposition party, Musavat, was charged with disturbing the peace and refusing to comply with authorities in connection with demonstrations held to protest the less-than-democratic elections held on October 15, 2003. Claimed to be a flight risk, he faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. Mr. Arifoglu believes, as do we, that he was arrested because of his work as a journalist and articles he wrote calling on the people to protest the electoral fraud.

Mr. Ismailov, a reporter with the opposition daily, Baki Khaber , was arrested and accused of participating in demonstrations, although his editor-in-chief maintains he was sent to cover the demonstrations. If convicted, he faces three to seven years in jail.

Your Excellency, these prisoners should be released both on principle and as a matter of expediency. The principle is simple, as stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ?Everyone, has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.? U.N. members recognize that this right is sometimes inconvenient and troublesome. Yet it is crucial, and for practical reasons as well as principle: A nation that stifles freedom of thought and expression forfeits the good opinion of the world and isolates itself. This may prompt political or economic sanctions, with loss of diplomatic influence and domestic prosperity; at the least, it relegates a country to the company of North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Zimbabwe. And in long or short order, a repressive regime will be overturned.

The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization that has defended press freedom around the world for 65 years, urges you to rethink your policy, to welcome free expression of ideas and opinions, and to release Mr. Arifoglu and Mr. Ismailov.

 

The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.

Respectfully yours,

John Langone

Norman A. Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee