PARIS (AFP) – Azerbaijan has seized Wednesday CSA calling for sanctions against France 2 to protest against a report that presented the country as a dictatorship, and during which the journalists of “Cash investigation” had been confiscating opponents interviews.
“The Republic of Azerbaijan has decided to ask the President of CSA to use its powers to initiate a sanctions procedure against France 2,” said in a statement the French lawyer of Azerbaijan, Olivier Pardo.
Azerbaijan has also filed a defamation suit Wednesday against the chain and journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard with the court of Nanterre.
A trial that journalists are confident of winning, with the support of NGOs that want to take the opportunity to denounce the regime.
The story of “Cash investigation”, shot during the visit of Francois Hollande on site, presenting the country as a dictatorship and President Aliyev as a despot.
“France 2 journalists have clearly failed in their duty of rigor, honesty and impartiality (…) by choosing a partial vision, partial and oriented Azerbaijan” accuses the lawyer.
After shooting, two journalists from the magazine were confiscated interviews of opponents and advocates of human rights that they had made.
“We did our work as journalists, the struggle of Azerbaijan will be complicated” defends Laurent Richard Azerbaijan face the charges.
“We have been contacted by numerous organizations defending human rights, such as Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, who expect this trial to come forward to testify about the situation in Azerbaijan,” says the journalist of the First Agency lines, which produced the report.
The NGOs defending human rights accuse the Azerbaijani authorities have increased their repression against the opposition and civil society since the reelection of President Ilham Aliyev, 53, for a third term in 2013.
This former Soviet republic in the Caucasus comes 162nd out of 180 in the world ranking of freedom of the press RSF 2015, who notes “a unprecedented wave of repression.”
In a similar procedure in 2011, the president’s daughter Lola Karimova ouzbekh had filed a complaint against the website Rue 89 who described it in an article as a “dictator’s daughter” and accused him of “whiten” the image of the countries.
The 17th Chamber of the High Court of Paris had dismissed the complaint for defamation.
Stéphane © armenews.com