AZERBAIJAN-RADIO/US STATE U.S. "alarmed" by raid on U.S.-funded news agency in Azerbaijan - U.S. State Department

Record ID: 218542

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN-RADIO/US STATE U.S. "alarmed" by raid on U.S.-funded news agency in Azerbaijan - U.S. State Department
  • Date: 29th December 2014
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 29, 2014) (STATE DEPARTMENT TV) (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN JEFF RATHKE SAYING: "We are alarmed by the government of Azerbaijan's crackdown on civil society. The secretary raised our concerns in his December 21st phone call with President Aliyev. Since then, we have seen the closure of RFE/RL's offices, th
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADIT98GT6JWD57WFM4WKDS7RIX
  • Story Text: The U.S. State Department said on Monday (December 29) it is "alarmed" by the closure of a U.S.-funded news agency in Azerbaijan, and called on Azerbaijani authorities to respect the freedom of the press. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke made the statement about Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) at a daily news briefing in Washington.
    "We are alarmed by the government of Azerbaijan's crackdown on civil society," said Rathke. "The secretary raised our concerns in his December 21st phone call with President Aliyev. Since then, we have seen the closure of RFE/RL's offices, the seizure of it's property and RFE/RL employees forcibly taken from their homes for questioning by local law enforcement on unspecified charges. Contractors and others tangentially connected to RFE/RL are also being interrogated by authorities. These actions, along with the denial of access to legal counsel during these interrogations, is further cause for concern."
    On Friday (December 26), Azerbaijani authorities raided and closed the bureau of the U.S.-funded agency, which made its name broadcasting into Russia and its communist allies during the Cold War. The station said investigators and armed police had ordered employees into a room of the bureau while they ransacked a company safe and confiscated documents and official stamps.
    The director of REF/RL's Azerbaijani Service said the raid was part of a campaign by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev's government against independent media and NGOs, a campaign that included the arrest of Khadija Ismayilova, the host of a RFE/RL show.
    Ismayilova, who has investigated government corruption, business dealings of the president's family, and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, was detained this month on charges of inciting a person to attempt suicide after a former colleague at the radio station attempted to kill himself.
    "We call again on Azerbaijani authorities to adhere to their OSCE and other international commitments to uphold human rights and basic freedoms including freedom of the press," said Rathke. "In this regard, President Aliyev's decision today to pardon 87 individuals, including 10 considered to have been in prison for civic activism, is a step in the right direction. We urge Azerbaijan's authorities to build on these pardons by releasing others incarcerated in connection with exercising their fundamental freedoms."
    The West has courted the former Soviet republic as an alternative to Russia as a supplier of oil and gas.
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