Civil Rights Blog- Freedom of Speech in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has been a center of conflict in The Middle East for decades in the past. Recently, there have been issues regarding corruption in the government. Living under the rule of President Ilham Aliyev freedom of press has been restricted, along with many other civil rights. Underneath this dictatorship the press is regarded as a threat to an authoritarian rule, and while protests have arisen, no progress has been made in dissolving censored coverage. Reporters and independent bloggers are constantly under threat from authorities and face harassment and imprisonment. In 2016 measures were taken to tighten the already repressive news coverage, Freedom House writing, "In November, the parliament expanded a law against insulting the president to include online content, and also made it illegal to disseminate libelous or insulting content under false user accounts."In April of 2016 a series of conflict occurred between Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan in a disputed territory called Nagorno-Karabakh. This led to what was called "The Four Day War" or "April War." During this time conflicts also occurred between news outlets and the government. Stations were shut down after broadcasting information that disagreed with government coverage, calling it "terrorist propaganda." Journalists are being put into prison for years at a time for being outspoken on the internet, but it's interesting how uncensored the internet is in Azerbaijan. In legal terms, there are no restrictions applied to online media, and people still have the choice for what they choose to post. There is no data filtering or internet blockage within the country. It makes me wonder, if the government is so intent on restricting what information their citizens are receiving through an online environment, why not just put those measurements into place? It would seem they are just waisting man power and space trying to hunt people down and lock them up for what they're posting. Is that because they are trying to appeal to the rest of the world as a country that isn't authoritarian or corrupt? 

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