Tuesday, February 12 2019 14:27

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.