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EU official blasts Azerbaijan after troubling Baku visit
Nov 12, 2012 By Transitions Online European
Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes had
particularly tough criticism for Azerbaijan following
an eventful trip to Baku for the U.N.-sponsored
Internet Governance Forum, where she said she was
barred from visiting a prison hospital and her staff’s
computers were hacked into. Kroes said in a 10 November blog post that
she was disappointed by the country’s attitude to
freedom and democracy. "The reality in Azerbaijan is
harsh,” she said. "We see many arbitrary restrictions
on the media. We see the exercise of free speech
effectively criminalized. We see violent attacks on
journalists.” In her post,
Kroes, who spoke at the forum 7 November,
said two of her staff’s computers were hacked into
while they were attending the conference. Ryan Heath,
her spokesman, told the Associated Press that he
and another member received warnings from Apple that
an unauthorized party had accessed their computers. He
said he didn’t know who broke into the computers but
believed it was some kind of surveillance. Kroes also said
in her post she met with President Ilham Aliev on 6
November and that he promised she could visit a
penitentiary hospital to see the conditions of the
prisoners. Upon her arrival at the prison, however,
Azerbaijan officials wouldn’t let her in, citing
"protocol issues,” according to Radio Free Europe. The Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe also had harsh
words about the country’s free-speech record following
the Internet forum. Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE
representative on freedom of the media, called the
country’s continued crackdown on protesters and the
media an "embarrassing trend” and said she brought the
issue up with Aliev, RFE reports. Update: Responding
to the claims the EU staffs’ computers were
hacked, the head of Azerbaijani Presidential
Administration Social and Political Department Ali
Hasanov flatly rejected the possibility any hacking
took place in an interview with Trend.az on 12
November. "There was no such interference, and
couldn’t have been. This accusation was simply made to
harm authority of Azerbaijani state and image of
organizers of the Seventh International Internet
Governance Forum,” Hasanov said.
