The international human rights organization Freedom House has published its traditional report on the state of freedoms in the countries of the world.
According to Turan, the report assesses the level of freedoms on several parameters: political rights and civil liberties, freedom of the Internet, the level of democratic governance.
According to the first parameter, Azerbaijan is included in the number of not-free countries.
This section assesses people's access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories. Individual freedoms from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law.
The second section assesses the level of internet freedom in 70 countries. Here Azerbaijan is also among the non-free countries.
The third section measures the level of democratic governance in 29 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia. The democracy assessment includes the ratings of national governance, electoral process, independent media, civil society, judicial system as well as the level of corruption.
On the third point, Azerbaijan is ranked as a country with a consolidated authoritarian regime.
“Azerbaijan is ruled by an authoritarian regime controlled by one family, the Aliyevs, who have been in power for almost three decades. While occasionally taking action to appease Western critics, the government has never implemented structural reforms,” the report notes.
The extremely restrictive environment in which independent media operate in Azerbaijan has become even more repressive. Amendments to the media law now allow the authorities to prosecute social media users for expressing opinions online.
Corruption remains pervasive, despite several high-profile anti-corruption operations conducted by the security services in 2020.
Azerbaijan's entire political elite got rich by abusing their power for personal gain. They have also used the country's oil wealth to buy influence abroad.
Internet freedom in Azerbaijan has deteriorated and the state still controls the information and communication technology sector.
Infrastructure problems that have hardly improved, Internet speeds have been low, and Internet connectivity has been inaccessible to many.
Those who express dissent on the Internet can expect harassment if they live in Azerbaijan.
For example, dozens of activists have been prosecuted for online criticism of government policies, anti-war sentiment, and other activism. Independent journalists continued to face harassment from law enforcement and the State Security Service.
