The NCDF condemned the Azerbaijani authorities for persecuting journalists and activists
The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) issued a statement on March 10 protesting the “forceful closure of Toplum TV and mass arrests.”
The document points out the deterioration of the situation with media freedom in Azerbaijan over the past 30 years. However, the situation has never been as difficult as it is now, the authors of the statement believe.
The massive repressions carried out in recent months against the online publication Abzas Medias “were repeated with the same cruelty against employees of the Internet television station Toplum TV.”
This time, the target was not only professional journalists, but also civil activists, the document further states.
The statement provides the names of those arrested, including the founder of Toplum TV Alasker Mammadli, the speaker of Platform III Republic and the head of the Institute for Democratic Initiatives Akif Gurbanov and others.
“This wave of repression, using the example of Toplum Tv, is an attempt to eliminate the few remaining islands of freedom in the media space of Azerbaijan and eliminate the last remnants of freedom of speech in general from the life of society. In Azerbaijan, engaging in opposition political and independent journalistic activities is considered a crime. The detention of Toplum Tv employees with the subsequent seizure and deletion of the You Tube channel of this Internet resource exposes the main goal of the repressive machine – to destroy freedom of speech,” the NSDF said in a statement.
However, according to the authors of the statement, neither the arrests of influential political leaders such as Tofig Yagublu and Gubad Ibadoglu, nor the destruction of independent Internet resources, nor repression will provide the regime with the desired eternal power. “Attempts to create a third twin of North Korea and Turkmenistan in the European political and geographical space in the 21st century are a pipe dream,” the NCDF statement further noted.
The NCDF called on the people to fight for democratic values, and international organizations to decisively influence the Azerbaijani authorities to stop repression.
On March 6-8 in Azerbaijan, after a search at the Toplum TV office, 7 journalists and activists were arrested, two more were transferred to police supervision.