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BAKU. July 23, 2010: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has finally expressed his attitude towards numerous appeals of local and international journalism organizations to adopt the defamation law and abolish criminal liability for libel. At the opening of the new building of Press Council on July 22 he said that even the developed European countries do not occupy a clear-cut position to this issue.   "We are not opposed to adoption of this law. Considering that nobody is arrested for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan, we can say that there is an unofficial moratorium in this field," Aliyev said. President Aliyev added that sometimes international organizations are not objective and "raise a clamor on trifle issues." There is not such an approach to the neighboring countries. He reminded murder of 10 demonstrations and repressions after the presidential elections 2008 in Armenia. But Council of Europe and international press forgot about that "very fast." "As soon as less important event occurs in Azerbaijan, it becomes a focus of international media. They attempt to present Azerbaijan as an anti-democratic country. This is a purpose-oriented and unfair work against us. We are going to defend ourselves and oppose our policy to that."

As far as defamation is concerned, I think this issue must be solved and we need to amend the law. But we wish the developed countries, which consider themselves a cradle of democracy, took the same steps, Aliyev said. Speaking about economic problems of press, Aliyev admitted limited advertisement market of prints and promised to take some measures.  Aliyev noted "Azerbaijani authorities are tolerant to criticism and even insult. As a president, I do not attach any importance to that," he said.

Aliyev also said said the distribution of "false information" was inadmissible. It was normal to publish false information, discuss it and send it to foreign media. I think that this method of political struggle should stay in the past," Aliyev said. "Azerbaijani society is patriotic and it is necessary to avoid artificial politicization of the society. The less politicized media we will have, the better will be their reputation," Aliyev believes.

The Azerbaijani president said some media write stories were ordered from abroad. "I do not want to name these people, but I would like to express my own opinion. The story written to suit some political circles will not create any problem for us. However, we need to put an end to this practice. I simply urge journalists to be patriotic. We should not turn Azerbaijan into the arena of confrontation of any circles," Ilham Aliyev said. He added that Azerbaijan must not be the place of "conflict of interests of other countries as well."

Aliyev also urged to respect the journalists’ rights. "Any violence and disrespect for journalists is inadmissible. In fact, we do not have such cases in Azerbaijan any more," Aliyev said and added that journalists should not have special privileges. "Journalism solidarity is a good thing and I welcome it, but sometimes the journalism solidarity ignores the law. In addition to protection of rights, we need to guarantee supremacy of law," Aliyev said.

Ilham Aliyev called on the journalists to pay more attention to patriotism and the Garabagh conflict. "Azerbaijani journalists should not justify separatists, interview them and bring accusations against Azerbaijanis." Aliyev said hinting at Eynulla Fatullayev: "These journalists hate Azerbaijani people so much that they popularize people, who spilled blood of innocent Azerbaijani citizens. Publishing of stories like that in Armenian and international press is a part of the policy against Azerbaijan. It is hard to find words to express my thoughts. I think that Azerbaijani media must take this matter serious. We rather need civil solidarity than journalism solidarity," Aliyev said.

Ilham Aliyev evaded appeals of representatives of public, journalists and international organizations to release the arrested journalists and solve problems of press (Turan).