Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 April / Trend corr. I.Alizade / The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party (YAP) considers that the journalists who went on a hunger strike became the tools in hand of the foreign forces, that want to exert pressure on Baku. "Somebody wants to disparage Azerbaijan," MP Ali Ahmadov, the Executive Secretary of YAP, stated on 4 April.
On 26 March, the imprisoned Fatullayav went on a hunger strike. The editor-in-chief demands objective consideration of his case, release of the arrested journalists and application of concrete protection mechanisms of the Council of Europe and OSCE. The chief editor of Gundelik Azerbaijan newspaper- Shahvalad Chobanoglu, editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat newspaper- Zahid Safaroglu and journalist of the newspaper- Elshan Balakhanli, are on a hunger strike for the five consecutive days to support the editor-in-chief of Gundalik Azerbaijan and Realniy Azerbaijan newspaper, Eynulla Fatullayev.
European Union, OSCE, Council of Europe and other international organizations consider that the situation of press in Azerbaijan has become worse during the recent time.
On 4 April, three other journalists, Chingiz Sultansoy, Uzeir Jafarov and Nemat Aliyev joined the hunger strike in the publishing house of Yeni Musavat.
According to Ahmadov, the Azerbaijani Government considers that freedom of speech and press was very well provided in the country. At the same time, the authorities demonstrate the political will for further development of press in the country. If a journalist is punished in compliance with the legislation, nobody should understand it as an action directed against freedom of speech and press, he said.
There are countries that want to exert pressure on the country, as Azerbaijan has good geopolitical location and many other reasons. "We do not want that any group in Azerbaijan to help the foreign forces, who wants to exert pressure on our country," Ahmadov said.
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