2024-04-02 06:37:29
“The United States will always defend the principles of free speech and free media. These are our two core values and we cannot sacrifice anything. We have always been open about this. “Azerbaijan should decide how these things work in Azerbaijan, it has its own constitutional and international obligations in this regard, and we want those obligations to be fulfilled.”
This is the ambassador of the United States of America in Azerbaijan Mark Libbi (Mark Libby) said in a meeting with a group of journalists on February 15.
Currently, at least 10 journalists are in prison in Azerbaijan. Six of them are employees of investigative site AbzasMedia. Although the journalists are accused of smuggling, they do not accept the charges. The Azerbaijani authorities do not accept what is said about the arrest of journalists for their professional activities.
Ambassador Mark Libby spoke about the points of contradiction in the relations between the United States and Azerbaijan: “We expressed our concern about the detention of journalists and civil society activists, as well as the distortion of US aid and cultural programs in Azerbaijan. This has a negative impact on our relations.”
According to the diplomat, there are many opportunities to correct this situation, because there are many areas where the two countries’ interests overlap and there is a positive experience of cooperation, such as security, energy and other areas.
Freedom radio