Human Rights Watch: Baku games to begin amid widespread repression

The first European Games will open inAzerbaijan on June 12, 2015, in an atmosphere of government repression unprecedented in the post-Soviet era, Human Rights Watch said today.
The authorities have detained dozens of critics of the government and failed to allow several journalists from major European outlets to enter the country to cover the games. They have also barred the human rights organization Amnesty International from releasing a report in Baku, the capital.
“Government repression is making the European Games historic for all the wrong reasons,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The European Olympic Committee still has the chance to prevent the Games from being tarnished by the Azerbaijani government’s abuses, but time is running out.”
Azerbaijan is hosting the inaugural European Games, a multi-sport event for over 6,000 athletes from 50 European nations, in Baku from June 12 to 28. The European Olympic Committees (EOC), an association of 50 National Olympic Committees, owns and regulates the games. Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, is also the president of the country’s National Olympic Committee, and has strong ties with the sports world.
In recent weeks Azerbaijani authorities denied or failed to provide required press accreditation and visas to at least three foreign journalists with European media outlets. A reporter with a leading European television station said he has yet to receive accreditation despite following all of the procedures. The authorities denied accreditation to Regis Gente, a journalist with Radio France Internationale who has been based in the South Caucasus reporting news stories on Azerbaijan since 2002. A third journalist denied accreditation works for a major European news media outlet.
Also on June 10, Azerbaijani border police at the airport in Baku refused entry to and deported Emma Hughes, an activist with the London-based group Platform who was accredited to cover the Games as editor of Red Pepper magazine. Hughes has advocated the release of government critics wrongly imprisoned by the Azerbaijani authorities, and her book criticizing the Azerbaijani government is scheduled for publication on June 12.
“Media freedom is a central pillar of the Olympic movement,” Denber said. “By denying visas to reporters covering the games, Azerbaijan and President Aliyev are rejecting one of the basic rules for hosting the event. The EOC and International Olympic Committee should demand a full explanation and reversal of these actions.”