It’s not new that Facebookcan be a dangerous thing. And not just for social faux pas.
Users who do not mincetheir posts can lose their jobs. Including in Azerbaijan, where awell-respected Baku State University historian, Altay Goyusov, claims that hehad been asked to resign after expressing criticism of the university’sadministration and the Azerbaijani authorities on his Facebook profile.
Goyusov’s cover photo showspolice arresting Ilgar Mammadov, an outspoken government critic andcivil-society activist accused of helping stoke riots this January in the townof Ismayilli. A photo caption calls for Mammadov's freedom.
The rector of Baku StateUniversity, Abel Maharramov, however, has denied the accusation, telling Radio Azadliqthat he thought Goyusov was using the story as a means to "acquirepolitical asylum in America."
After a long business tripto the US, he claimed, Goyusov "started to forget his nationalfeelings" and, supposedly, began shirking work. He denied that he had beendismissed.
In response to the report,some of Goyusov’s students staged a protest and threatened to boycott classes.Goyusov thanked his students for their support, but requested them to go backto their classes. Several faculty members also spoke up for theircolleague.
Azerbaijan’s government has long been accusedof squashing any diversity of views; a charge it routinely denies. But, asRFE/RL pointed out this week, the pace of run-ins with those critical of thegovernment seems to have picked up since President Ilham Aliyev's reelection toa third term last month.
Earlier this week, theAzadlyg newspaper, a longtime government critic and one of the few still inprint, announced that it was shutting down its print operations since a heftyfine had driven it to the brink of bankruptcy.
Another opposition paper, Yeni Musavat,charged that the authorities are creating distribution hurdles.
Meanwhile, the prison doorsare opening yet again. Amnesty International condemned the November 13sentencing of Rashad Ramazanov, an anti-establishment blogger and writer, tonine years for supposed drug trafficking. Meanwhile, the editor of theopposition paper Nota Bene, Sardar Alibeyli, who has had brushes with policebefore, was sentenced to four years for hooliganism.
Both charges are recurringfavorites in Azerbaijan for arrests of outspoken, critical journalists orbloggers. Yet the government seesnothing odd about that coincidence.
Many may charge that aFacebook status is treated as a grand act of defiance against the system, butthe president, for his part, maintains that freedom of speech is "fullyensured."
(Eurasianet)
ANN.Az
