Azerbaijan, Baku, 17 July / Trend corr. K.Zarbaliyeva/ "In recent 6 months, Azerbaijani press 20 times faced court proceedings," Media Rights Institution's report reflecting recent six month's legal situation in Azerbaijani press says.
According to the report, arrest was demanded in 7 of 20 court proceedings.
In the aforementioned period, almost every week a journalist faced threats or attacks. Program coordinator of Media Rights Institution Khalid Agayev said at a press conference on 16 July that number of threats and court proceedings for journalists has increased in recent years. Twenty-two such facts were registered in recent 6 months.
"Since 2003, over 150 such facts have been registered, mainly including critic journalists, with only 2 of them resulting in punishments. In remaining cases, proceedings had no results," Agayev said.
The compensations demanded from Azerbaijani press as a result of recent 6 month's court proceedings (ANZ 1.212mln) exceed media's annual earnings - over $1mln.
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