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UN Human Rights Council discusses state of human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan

13 March 2008 10:58 (UTC +04:00)

Ambei Ligabo said during his visit to Azerbaijan last year he found out that the countryâ€™s media sector faced a number of problems.
The UN representative expressed his concern over the criminal libel and arrest of several journalists. Ligabo said he had conducted discussions with Azerbaijani officials and recommended official Baku to exclude the above-mentioned article from the Criminal Code and take measures to ensure the journalistsâ€™ security. He said alongside with these troublesome facts there were positive points in Azerbaijani media, citing the existence of broad media network and possibility of making different statements in the media.
Azerbaijanâ€™s permanent representative in the UN office in Geneva, Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov addressing the session clarified the issues mentioned by Ligabo. The ambassador said that Government of Azerbaijan attached great importance to the freedom of opinion and expression, development of free media. He underlined that there was censorship in the country and the majority of the political parties had their media outlets. Elchin Amirbayov said low professionalism of journalists sometimes caused problems, he said the majority of the imprisoned journalists had not been arrested for their professional activity. The ambassador also mentioned that discussions were being carried out for exclusion of the criminal libel from the Criminal Code.