14 April 2008, 11:15
Group of US students demands freedom of speech in Azerbaijan
A group of Azerbaijani students and teachers of the Harvard University (USA) has conducted an action entitled "The Press is Our Friend", demanding to ensure the freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.
The participants held the slogans: "The Press is Our Friend" and "Defend the Press", and placed photos from the action in the Internet. The message of the action organizers, received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, runs that the students hold the action in protest against the pressure on mass media in the CIS countries and demand to ensure the freedom of press in Azerbaijan.
The action participants expect that within the next few days authoritative persons and politicians of the USA and other countries will join the action.
If there are no positive changes in the situation with the press in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani students from other countries are going to join the action.
According to the list of the Federation of Human Rights Organizations, today Azerbaijan counts 65 political prisoners, including 10 Karabakh guerrilla fighters (political motives were excluded from their indictments) and four journalists, three of whom were recognized to be "prisoners of conscience" by the Amnesty International.
Author: Rafael Gasanov, CK correspondent
