Journalists prepare all-national protest action in Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan journalists have made a decision to hold an all-national meeting on December 10 in protest against illegal arrests of journalists and pressure on the free press.

Political scientist Eldar Namazov, head of the organizing committee of the meeting, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the action will show to the whole world the real situation in Azerbaijan in the area of the freedom of mass media.

The political scientist has also moved a proposal to restore the publication of the "Real Azerbaijan" newspaper. As he said, if the editor-in-chief Einullah Fatullaev agrees, this problem can be settled. Mr Namazov has noted that although E. Fatullaev is under arrest, his newspapers were not officially closed.

Meanwhile, Elchin Bekhbudov, chairman of the Azerbaijani Committee against Torture, has visited today Einullah Fatullaev, who is kept at the investigatory insulation facility of the Ministry of National Security. Mr Fatullaev expressed his dissatisfaction with the court verdict passed on him and believed that 8.5 years in prison to a journalist for an article contradicts the democracy, Mr Bekhbudov said.

Let us note here that currently 7 journalists are kept in Azerbaijani prisons.