Dissidents or not, the truth is- there is no freedom of expression in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani authorities like to claim that Azerbaijan has no issues with freedom of expression, that we have free press, and above all, all rights are respected. In fact, if it was up to the local authorities, we live in utopia and everything is absolutely perfect. But unlike authorities, civil society activists, human rights proponents and the rest of the sane population (of which there is little left) claim otherwise. In other words, there is no such thing as freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. 

The reality of the situation was recently examined by Article 19, an international human rights organization and launched in a report "Living as Dissidents: Freedom of Expression in Azerbaijan" on September 10, 2010. According to this report, "freedom of expression situation [in Azerbaijan] has deteriorated over the past five years and should be considered among the most pressing human rights concerns in the country". Some of the most pressing issues are violence against journalists and harassment against government critics, registration problems of human rights NGOs, use of criminal defamation provisions to imprison journalists and misuse of criminal law for political purposes and etc. The list is long and nothing to be proud of.

It is not a surprise, that the report was released just in time of approaching parliamentary elections, scheduled for November 7. Given that ever since last parliamentary elections (held in 2005) much has changed. 

However, just as all the previous international reports, it is likely that this report as well will have little if any effect or as a matter of fact any positive/ pressing result on the Azerbaijani authorities. In fact, at a time when Article 19 was issuing this report, Azerbaijani authorities were busy celebrating Azerbaijan's new achievement- the highest flag pole in the world. 

If only half of the spending on projects like this were transferred to things people really need in this country. I doubt that average Azeri with a salary of 85EUR a month cares whether its country has the highest flag pole or not. That wont make any of his daily surviving troubles go away or make his family any happier. Or will it?!