Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend Sh.Alizade / The Deputy Head of the Social-Political Department of the Executive Apparat of Azerbaijan President, Arastun Mehdiyev, informed Trend on 3 May that the reports from the international organizations regarding freedom of expression in Azerbaijan does not reflect reality.
According to him, the information reflected in the reports has been obtained from unofficial sources, and does not demonstrate the processes in Azerbaijan totally. "Success has been achieved with regards to freedom of expression and press in Azerbaijan. To put it simply, several problems in this sphere are artificially magnified and in turn any successes are in the shadows," Mehdiyev said.
Disagreeing with the statement regarding the increase of attacks to journalists by State employees, Mehdiyev said that over the recent period, State employees have not made law suits against press organizations. According to him, the law suits are raised by the NGOs, entrepreneurs or other citizens. Mehdiyev considers that several press representatives misuse freedom of expression in Azerbaijan to their own interests.
"For their political gain, several international organizations try to lower Azerbaijan's rating. It is not a secret that in many cases, certain countries which are less developed than Azerbaijan are reflected higher on the ratings tables. We do not agree with such an assessment," he stated.