Remembering Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade. Part II of Day 1 at the World Blogging Forum

E-Democracy Panel. 14:00-16:00

Parvana Persiyani highlights the cause of Emin Mili and Adnan Hajizade, two bloggers who have been arrested in Azerbaijan because of a satirical video they made…

Parvana Persiyani, was born on November 5, 1986. Got her Bachelor from Azerbaijan University of Languages in International Relations and European Studies in 2007.

Starting from 2008 OL Youth Movement created OL Media, which is involved in making social videos, reporting different events and news on its blog www.ol-en.blogspot.com.

One of the last vidoes created by OL Media was the satirical video about donkeys purchased by Azerbaijani Government from Germany. After posting this video on Internet, the activists of OL Youth Movement Adnan Hajizada (director of the video) and coordinator of AN Network Emin Milli (promoter) were arrested with false charges on hooliganism. Being a co-founder of OL Media and Youth Rights Protection Movement, created just after arrest of bloggers, Parvana is involved in protection of violated rights of these two bloggers at the moment.

Giorgi Jakhaia of Georgia mention how his blog was attacked during the Georgia-Russia crisis. Bloggers in Georgia and Russia are under pressure… [listening to them, I feel like Turkey is again somewhere between free Western countries like Netherlands or Canada and oppressive countries like Egypt and China…]

Giorgi Jakhaia a.k.a. Cyxymu?, is a Georgian blogger who was targeted in a co-ordinated series of attacks on social networking sites Facebook, Google  Blogger, Live Journal and Twitter.Cyxymu?s Russian-language LiveJournal blog was a source of information from Georgia for the news media during the 2007 state of emergency and 2008 South Ossetia war.

Emin Huseynzade from Azerbaijan emphasizes the fact that as soon as Azeri bloggers began political commenting, pressure began. I had time to make small chats with Mr. Huseyzade. He knows his stuff.

Emin Huseynzade is a new media specialist and trainer who has worked for numerous Azerbaijani and international organizations.He is working for Transitions www.tol.org as Caucasus Project Manager for new media development program. He is promoting blogging all over the Caucasus. Up until now, he has conducted more than 20 local workshops in Caucasus and Europe.