ArmInfo. "Reporters without Borders" an influential international non-governmental organization considers it inappropriate to ban journalists from visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, introduced by Azerbaijan. Such opinion expressed head of "Reporters Without Borders" Office in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Johann Bihr during a meeting with Armenian journalists in Paris as part of a press tour organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France.
According to him, this is another type of censorship: "We have repeatedly opposed this, urging the Azerbaijani authorities to abandon the practice of the" black list ". We also observe such phenomena in Ukraine today. The visits by journalists of "hot spots" are extremely important for covering what is happening and we believe that such phenomena should not manifest themselves in any corner of the world.
<We call on all countries to treat with understanding the work of journalists and to provide access to conflict areas. We believe that this will only contribute to the speedy resolution of conflicts, which we all want, "said Bihr, commenting on the policy of Azerbaijan to include journalists visiting Artsakh on the" black list "of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, as well as the incident with the Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin.
The representative of the organization expressed the conviction that this requirement of the Azerbaijani side to obtain permission to visit Nagorno-Karabakh extremely complicates this process and not the fact that permission will be obtained. At the same time, the representative of RSF believes that Baku responds only to pressure. As an example, he cited the situation around the Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov, who was extended his sentence. "Only through the combined efforts of local and international organizations was it possible to achieve the abolition of additional accusations against the blogger. Positive tendencies during the detention of journalists in Azerbaijan are observed only if there is external pressure on Baku. What we witnessed in the case of Huseynov, the verdict against which was canceled. We intend to continue to work and achieve sanctions, as well as to ensure that 10 journalists were released from detention, "said Bihr, adding that even when journalists are released, they still have much to do.