Baku, June 24
Turan News Agency

The Media Rights Institute is being expelled from the premises it rents in central Baku, on Kaverochkin Street (near the US embassy).

The director of the institute, Rasid Hacili, told Turan that their landlady had admitted that she was told to cancel the rent agreement and expel the rights activists.

According to the rent agreement, the sides must notify each other of the cancellation of the contract two months in advance. "In principle, we have two months to find new premises. But the landlady is scared and asks us to step up the process," Hacili said.

This is not the first case of illegal expulsion of NGOs and media outlets. The most scandalous was the expulsion of a number of media outlets and NGOs from a building at 33 Xaqani Street, in November 2006.

The expulsion of the Media Rights Institute from their premises confirms the existence of political persecution in Azerbaijan. Such measures are aimed at increasing pressure on civil society representatives and at keeping them in fear, rights activists believe.

The head of the National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, Arzu Abdullayeva, told Turan that she was aware of the problem and was trying to help the Media Rights Institute.

We have to say that the expulsion of the Media Rights Institute has coincided with attempts to pass through parliament amendments to the law on NGOs that seriously restrict the activities of civil society activists.

In a later report at 1045 gmt 24 Jun 09, Turan quoted Emin Huseynov, director of the Institute for the Freedom and Security of Reporters, as condemning the attempt to expel the Media Rights Institute from its premises. "I think that the authorities will try to paralyse the Media Rights Institute's activity for some time, and eventually change the organization's policy in the end," he said.