In early February, American research center Freedom House published it's report on the state of civil and political freedom in 195 countries around the world. Of these 195 countries, 86 were recognized as free, 59 as partially free, and 50 as not free. This center criticized almost all republics of the former USSR. Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine were "partially free", and Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were completely "not free."
Due to this Baku accused Freedom House of trying to undermine Azerbaijan's authority, distorting existing realities, supporting position of the Armenian lobby and the entire anti-Azerbaijani network. Indeed, it's not clear which international organization invented criteria for defining “not free” country; for what purposes are organizations such as Freedom House being funded and who gives them the right to intervene in internal affairs of independent states.
In an interview with Azertac, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov said that when some countries' citizens protest against state policy, smash everything in the streets, burn cars, rob shops, it's hailed as "free country" ... Even Armenian people consider Armenia "not free" country. When a speaker and deputies are shot in the Armenian parliament, when protesters are murdered for going against leadership that falsified presidential elections, how can Freedom House recognize such country as "partially free"?... When these organizations talk about protecting human rights and freedoms, first things they should do is declare Armenia an occupying state.
As for Azerbaijan, it supports freedom of press, 80% of the population has access to the internet, social networks have no restrictions, there's no censorship. Azerbaijan is a pretty stable state considering the fact that wars are taking place in the region and in the world. Baku believes that with such biased reports can't exert pressure on Azerbaijan and hurt its authority in the world.
