This week, I’m just back from Azerbaijan – so human rights issues are very much on my mind.
The European Union is not just a common market; and not just a guardian of peace. It’s a place of fundamental rights. Rights that we treasure, protect and assure for our citizens. And nor is the Internet just a set of technologies, or just a space for business opportunities. It is the new frontier of freedom. And people like the inspiring young Malala Yousafzai are a reminder of that.
That’s the message I took to the Internet community and the President of Azerbaijan this week in the fascinating city of Baku.
This little country has an extraordinary past and present. Squeezed in between Russia and Iran, split in two unconnected geographic parts, full of oil and gas. The country has amazing artists: but also a government with a very troubling attitude to freedom and democracy.
I wondered for a very long time whether I should attend this week’s Internet Governance Forum in Baku. But in fact many of the dozens of journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders I met here thought it was helpful. And when the IGF comes to town, radical change often follows. Because, when empowered, connected citizens press for greater freedom. As happened in Tunisia and Egypt in the years after they held this conference.
Waiting to meet political prisoners in a Baku jail, before the authorities eventually denied me access
But on the other hand I was denied access to meet political prisoners, despite a commitment from the President himself. Activists were harassed at the Internet conference. My advisers had their computers hacked. So much for openness.
The reality in Azerbaijan is harsh. We see many arbitrary restrictions on the media. We see the exercise of free speech effectively criminalised. We see violent attacks on journalists. In fact the Azeri government had promised earlier this year, before the Eurovision Song Contest, to ensure press freedom, but the situation actually got worse. I made clear that these things are unacceptable.
I wish I could say media freedom and freedom of expression were in perfect shape throughout the EU. However, as I blogged about earlier this week, we have recently seen problems in Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece; while in France the Charlie Hebdo newspaper had its offices burnt down. But let’s be clear, we are not comparing like with like. In Europe, people do not go to prison for having opinions, or for putting videos on YouTube.
Here in Azerbaijan the Internet is a double-edged sword. Unlike neighbouring Turkey and Iran, everyone in Azerbaijan has access – but on the other hand, they face the consequences if they use the Internet in a way the government doesn’t like.
In the end, I know the power of the Internet and the value of freedom will win. Today across the world is “Malala Day“, where we remember the example of the inspiring Malala Yousafzai. She is the 14 year old Pakistani girl who blogged about life under Taliban tyranny and called for the right to women’s education. She was shot in the face by the Taliban. That cowardly act shows how much they hated what the internet could do. But they will not silence her, or her message. With the Internet, someone else, somewhere else, can always continue the fight.
You can count on me to continue defending human rights and democracy inside and outside the EU. I hope I can count on you to join me.
Tweet: #IAmMalala
(A version of this blog appeared in Dutch today in the newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.)
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I feel privileged to have discovered your blog today. An Associated Press story quoted you and cited your blog, regarding events in Azerbaijan. Thank you for the efforts you make to share these events with a wide audience. I will read your words often now, because what you say is quite important.
Kate in New York
It is again telling that individual Commission members and Parliament members communicate strongly while the diplomatic service under C. Ashton usually keeps a low voice. I was quite sceptical about the WSIS process and the IGF, being mostly empty talk, but it seems quite useful to address unacceptable conditions in the host nations.
I remember well how the Tunesian “civil society” attempted to intimidate attendants of the preparatory meeting to the Tunesian WSIS in Berlin. I was shocked that they dared to intervene in my own nation. Now the Tunesian population has overthrown the regime and I guess the international attention raised by the WSIS process was helpful to this end, helpful to set an agenda for freedom of expression and to raise awareness of civil society observers.
It does appear pretty unwise of Baku to outrage opinion leaders of Parliament in these matters and a European Commissioner. As the Commission is always supposed to speak as a whole I hope you would receive the appropriate backing of the Commission and member states y0u deserve. These incidents are clearly unacceptable.
Thank You for Speaking the Thruth (especially of someone in your position). Not everything in life is pleasant, but it is a must to speak about it and inform the public…. one way to help keep hatred in check.
I don’t tweet…. hence…
#IAmMalala
Can you tell a bit more about the “hacking” event ? What’s the evidence that this was an attack? Being an IT guy, I would first blame the overzealous and overreacting user (your collaborator) and only afterwards — the Azeris.
You can not just blame the Azeris without giving some details about the event and about the conclusion of the forensics analysis.
What an inspiration Malala Yousafzai is. Thank you for sharing this.
You are mistaken, dear Neelie KROES.
Azerbaijan has never been “Pakistan, Libya, Egypt or Syria”. You make inappropriate and hypocritical alignment. And it says that you absolutely do not know the real situation in Azerbaijan, you succumbed to the manipulations of the Azerbaijani opposition and you are not interested, in fact, find a free Internet in Azerbaijan or not. Your report on the visit to Azerbaijan European bureaucratic evasion when you want to make a good impression on colleagues and meet the expectations of democratic institutions. You are not allowed to go to prizonl? And could you without the consent of the Ministry of Justice of your country to meet with the prisoners? Maybe you first have agreed to all bureaucratics questions? Why do you think you can manage to Azerbaijan as in your kitchen? And why do people cheat and write the Azerbaijani authorities hacked computers of your assistants? This is the true or not ? I wish that you and your colleagues were guided by accurate information about the situation in Azerbaijan, has not been a parallel between my homeland and Pakistan, and to take meaningful steps to promote the Internet in Azerbaijan, and were not engaged in a theatrical performance or threatened political situation of Azerbaijanis in Libya or Iraq. Since you absolutely do not know anything about our country I want to inform You that an Azerbaijani women got the right to vote in elections in 1918. The country with the democratic traditions will never be wild and backward, what you have presented in your report on the visit to Azerbaijan.
Mrs. Kroes Thank you for you sensibility about freedom and democracy. About situation in Azerbaijan it is not worse than other countries in the region. Even perhaps they have better condition on internet than other countries in the region.
What are some typical azeri lame responses to blatant disregard for truth, freedom and justice? ‘It is someone else’s fault’, ‘We are being vicimized unjustly by Europeans’, ‘We are a model of freedom in our part of the world, etc, etc. Wake up freedom loving people of Azerbaijan, you deserve to live as masters of your own destiny.
>”The hack attacks on laptops owned by two members of Ms Kroes’ staff took place when the laptops were in a hotel in Baku, said spokesman Ryan Heath.
>Security messages from Apple revealed that “third parties” had accessed the machines, he said.”
Sounds quite likely that you’ve been tricked by one of those fake anti-virus website scams.
Exactly. Or a “suspicious activity” message from Gmail. It would likely pop up on a computer that was located in Brussels for a while, then suddenly moved to Baku. I made a FOI request to get the forensic analysis report on the matter. See here.
she did Not accuse anyone!! she just stated that her collegues received messages stating that the laptops were accessed.
Anti-virus story is difficult for me to believe… as this event was specifically for “internet security” event… and these people are not lay individuals, who would not know the difference between a fake message and a real one.
Thanks for all the feedback.
As the adviser who received the suspicious messages, I want to point out that I haven’t accused anybody in particular. But the messages and the timing were suspicious and the computer is being examined.
Obviously there are internal security protocol to follow at the Commission but if and when I can, I’ll provide an update.
I think Kroes was quite clear that she respects that Azerbaijan has a more open internet than some of its neighbours, and did great work to throw off Soviet domination.
But I am concerned, for example, by this latest report of intimidation and violence against protestors and journalists in Azerbaijan:
http://www.france24.com/en/20121117-azerbaijan-detains-dozens-pro-democracy-rally?ns_campaign=editorial&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=reseaux_sociaux&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20121117_azerbaijan_detains_dozens_pro_democracy_rally
We can’t hate all hackers because of something like this. There are hackers that use their knowledge to reach out to big companies and expose flaws in their security. If it wasn’t for hackers, we wouldn’t have internet security professionals or network administrators. It the same people that are protecting your data. It’s just some off them use their power for evil. There should be some kind of screening process before you are admitted into an computer science program. But now a days you there is educational content on youtube that will teach anyone how to hack. Just do a search for hacking and you will see how many buy YouTube views these videos have. It’s scary!