Ex-communist Europe
Azerbaijan
What about the donkey bloggers
Jul 9th 2010, 17:22 by E.L. | LONDON
A report in the latest print edition of this newspaper looks at American policy in Ukraine and the Caucasus following the "reset" of relations with Russia, pegged to the visit to the region by Hillary Clinton. It highlights among other things the way in which the American administration is soft-pedalling the human-rights issue in its dealings with countries such as Azerbaijan.
In private she discussed two bloggers who were jailed after ridiculing state officials; in public she said, “there has been a tremendous amount of progress in Azerbaijan”, a statement questioned by a brave local journalist.
It is a sign of the times that even a really senior American official can't get a humble couple of journalists released from jail and feels too embarrassed to raise their cases publicly. The reference in the article is to the pair known as the "donkey bloggers". The offending video, which landed Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli in jail, is worth watching. This piece by Luke Allnutt on the RFE/RL website summarises the dismal record of the regime in Baku on media freedom.
Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.
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Thistle7
If you follow the donkey blogger link in the article and read the original article it makes sense.
The government purchased 2 donkeys from abroad at $41,000 each.
So if you want to get ahead......apparently its better to be a donkey than a citizen
Could one of our Azeri friends out there please explain the satire in the video? It has gone over my head, which is completely my fault, but I'd love to understand it.