Journalist Rasim Aliyev is a victim of free speech: lawyer

The lawyer argued that the incident had nothing to do with politics, accusing Thorbjørn Jagland, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, of trying to politicize it.

A lawyer’s job is to defend the rights of his client. There is no doubt about that. Yet, the lawyer shouldn’t make things even worse for his client instead of defending him in court.

Rasim Aliyev was a journalist. He would always be at the forefront of political events. There are dozens of pictures showing police beating and detaining him while covering demonstrations in Baku. Anyone can Google to see the pictures. 

The journalist worked for ANN.az news website when he was killed.

That Rasim Aliyev was killed not because of his journalistic work confuses some lawyers that are not specialized in media rights. In fact, the issue becomes absolutely clear if you look at the law. 

Rasim Aliyev was a victim of freedom of speech. The freedoms of opinion and expression are protected by Azerbaijani law under Article 47 of the Constitution, which says: "Everyone has freedom of opinion and freedom of speech."

This right does not apply to only journalists but also each individual. Article 50 of the Constitution says: "Everyone has the right to search for, obtain, transfer, produce and disseminate information using legal means.”

Here, too, everyone is given the right to disseminate information. Rasim Aliyev was killed because of expressing his view. This cannot be disputed.

The defense lawyer should have looked at Azerbaijani law before writing to the Council of Europe’s secretary general. Article 3 of the law on "Mass media” adopted by parliament on December 7, 1999, says that media include print media, TV and radio channels, news agencies, websites and others.

Rasim Aliyev expressed his views on Facebook, which according to Azerbaijani law is also a media outlet.

 

Journalists can publish factual reports or express their views through media. Rasim Aliyev was killed because of his Facebook comment on the footballer. This is what the Council of Europe secretary general meant to say in his statement.

If the lawyer was concerned about Jagland’s comment, he should have read a statement by President Ilham Aliyev. The president said, according to his political aide Ali Hasanov, that the journalist’s killing posed a threat to freedom of speech and information in Azerbaijan. He said that ensuring media freedoms is one of the priorities of the Azerbaijani state.   

As you can see, President Aliyev didn’t see the killing a result of a mere dispute between two men. Instead, he described the incident as a threat to freedom of speech in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the lawyer’s attempts to distort the essence of the incident are regrettable.