Media Freedom: Lead, Follow Or Get Out Of The Way

Michael Hedges May 7, 2012 Follow on Twitter

Media rights advocates facing intransigent autocrats are, as all know well, between a rock and a hard place. Press releases and statements don’t faze the worst of the worst. And triangulating responsibility is a poor substitute for hard diplomacy.

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) will shortly be upon us, broadcast this year from Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. The host country was determined, as is custom, by decision of the previous years’ judging. Azeri singers Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal won the 2011 ESC in Düsseldorf, Germany.  Preparations for ESC fans and worldwide media descending on Baku began immediately.

Also the custom, it seems, with any large scale media event came criticism from human rights and media rights advocates. Like much of the former Soviet Union, the Azeri record has been less than stellar. Abysmal, some have said, with noted justification. US-based media watcher Freedom House rated Azerbaijan ‘not free’ in its Freedom of the Press 2012 report (released April 27), ranked 172nd, tied with Russia and Zimbabwe. Azeri President Ilham Aliev was included, again, in the Paris-based press freedom watcher Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) 2012 Predators of Freedom of Information list, released May 4th. New to the list, which continues to grow, is Vasif Talibov, ruler of the “autonomous” Azeri region Nakhchivan.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the Eurovision Song Contest’s principal organizer and, similar to the relationship between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Games, holder of the brand. The EBU has rules by which local host organizers, who must be EBU members, must abide. EBU members, public and State broadcasters in 56 countries, generally like the ESC because it’s highly participatory and an audience magnet. Roughly 125 million watched the various ESC telecasts in May 2011.

Since the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games human rights and media rights organizations have attempted to put pressure on governments deemed deficient through the principal organizers of big televised events. The IOC scrambled to limit negative media coverage in China, repeating that the Olympic Games are only about sports. Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone said the same when pressed by human rights organizations over the Bahrain Grand Prix (April 22). Bahrain's King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa was added to the RSF media “predators” blacklist in 2011. Unlike the host country choice for the Eurovision Song Contest, the IOC, F1, UEFA and others make their venue selections based solely on economics. Host governments in “transitional democracies” invest in high profile international events hoping to burnish the old image.

Criticism of the Azeri government specific to the ESC has centered on reports that construction of the new Crystal Hall venue in Baku and access roads to it resulted in the forced eviction of hundreds of people. “The Azerbaijani government is not just demolishing homes, it's destroying peoples' lives,” said a Human Rights Watch spokesperson, quoted by Reuters (February 29). “It should immediately stop illegal expropriations, evictions, and demolitions and compensate the people who have been evicted for both the loss of their homes and emotional suffering.”

Other critics point to continuing, perhaps escalating, pressure by the Azeri government on local media workers, including more arrests, invasive surveillance and blackmail. A local Azeri journalist was beaten to a pulp (April 18), allegedly by oil company SOCAR employees, while filming residential demolitions in Baku. “With seven journalists already in jail and the dust only just settling following the high profile attempted blackmail of leading investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, independent media outlets and NGOs are starting to worry about what will happen after Eurovision, once Azerbaijan is no longer under the international spotlight,” noted Index On Censorship (April 26).

Most reporting of the ongoing criticism of the Azeri government’s foibles related to media freedom, human rights and the Eurovision Song Contest has been limited to Azeri opposition media and, unsurprisingly, media in neighboring Armenia, where strong and negative feelings toward Azeri’s never end. Armenia’s public broadcaster initially announced it would send an ESC participant to Baku then, complaining about questionable visa requirements for media workers, backed out even after the EBU forced the Azeri government to modify those rules.

German media, however, picked up on the story.  Several newspapers, including Der Spiegel, seized on the rough proximity of an authoritarian regime and a television talent show. German politicians weighed in with one, German Human Rights Commissioner Markus Löning, calling for a boycott. State controlled media in Azerbaijan shot back, calling Löning an alcoholic. Leaders in the German government also called for boycotts of the UEFA 2012 football championships in Ukraine, citing the treatment of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

With German media growling, EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre took the extraordinary decision to organize a conference on media freedom in Azerbaijan (May 2). The sidebar was the Eurovision Song Contest, which made the “workshop” extraordinary as the EBU has steadfastly avoided placing their well-known television event close to political controversy. Attending the conference, which was not open to international media, were representatives of the Azeri government, Azeri state and public television, Azeri human rights and media rights organizations, the Council of Europe, International Federation of Journalists, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, Article 19, SEEMO and Human Rights Watch.

After the conference, which one EBU official called “better than I expected,” Ms Deltenre and Azeri government representative Ali Hasanov made statements and took questions. The EBU Director General opened by saying “no one, no country is perfect.” The EBU would be providing more training for Azeri state TV. She said calls for an ESC boycott were “harmful” and the EBU would be imposing sanctions on Armenian public television for withdrawing after the deadline.

Mr. Hasanov said the “government would investigate fully a number of alleged cases of jailed and mistreated journalists,” which, he added, “happens everywhere.” Issues with opposition media are, he said, “differences of opinion.”

Several conference participants scheduled to address the Geneva press corps, notably from the Council of Europe, left straightway. As they disembarked, there were many long faces. One, quoted by the AP, called the conference “window dressing.”

In a statement issued immediately following the conference Human Rights Watch representative Hugh Williamson continued to call for the EBU to speak out. “It’s laudable that the EBU organized this workshop as part of its support for media freedom, but a one-day conference can’t substitute for the EBU taking a firm public stand about the oppressive environment for free expression.”

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