F.R.A.W  Home  Site  Events  Search  Contact  Help   Back  Top  Fwd   Keys 
 






News and Alerts

17th December 2011
Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Bulldozes Homes and Human Rights
OK, strange subject line, but true; people are being forcibly removed from their homes for the continental festival of schalger music, Eurovision. In order to beautify the city of Baku and construct facilities for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, people are being evicted to clear sites for construction of contest facilities.

21st November 2011
Jam Tomorrow: Unconventional Gas and Britain's Energy Future
A new presentation/discussion on shale gas/coalbed methane, gas "fracking", and the future of Britain's energy economy, developed by Paul Mobbs and the Free Range Network

11th October 2011
Energy Beyond Oil Project:
New Sheet E11. Fracking and Coalbed Methane
When gas fracking and other "unconventional" energy resources are discussed in the media the focus is usually on the technology used to produced the energy, or the impact this might have on the environment. In fact, the significant feature of the exploitation of unconventional energy resources is that our present energy situation has become so precarious that companies and government consider these valid energy sources!

5th October 2011
North Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire Fracking Campaign
The Government is carrying out another round of onshore oil and gas licensing, and many of these sites will be using gas fracking techniques. In advance of this, Ideas for a Change are launching a campaign of possible fracking in North Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

10th June 2011
FRAW Site Design Statement
After a bit of delay whilst we found time to carry out the necessary research to compare different site design strategies, we've finally completed the 'FRAW Design Statement' page. For the full analysis see Ecolonomics No.12: Promulgating the Web's calorie controlled diet.

19th April 2011
The political acceptance of peak oil, and what it means for 'economic normality', has begun
Paul Mobbs has released an update last months 'ecolonomics' newsletter on the energy situation and nuclear power. He broadens his view to look at the areas where Monbiot's pro-nuclear stance falls down when we factor-in the implications of peak oil.







Location: FRAW Main index » News & Alerts Network » FRNAN-2011-12-17

The Free Range News and Alerts Network

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Bulldozes Homes and Human Rights

European Broadcasting Union organises whitewash of Azerbaijan's human rights abuses in the guise of 'culture'

Download printer-friendly PDF version (117kB)

Posted by Ozymandias, 17th December 2011.



OK, strange subject line, but true; people are being forcibly removed from their homes for the continental festival of schalger music, Eurovision. If you've watched events in Central Asia for a while, you may have heard of some of the excesses of the states which Western nations now support as a bulwark against "international terror". Fuelled by oil wealth, in Azerbaijan this sorry story has taken a new twist. In order to beautify the city of Baku and construct facilities for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 (22nd to 26th May 2012), people are being evicted to clear sites for construction of contest facilities.

Azerbaijan, despite its inclusion in European institutions such as the European Broadcasting Union (organisers of Eurovision), does not uphold the principles of democracy and civil rights which Europe enacted following the Second World War. National and international human rights and democracy groups are not exactly welcome in Azerbaijan – as shown in August when, in defiance of the law and a court order, the building used by various human rights organisations in Baku was bulldozed by the state. That came in the wake of a government crack-down on protest to put down any chance of a public mass movement developing in Azerbaijan in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Now the bulldozers are back again – this time to make way for the facilities that will broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. People are being forcibly evicted from their homes – the water, gas and electricity having been previously disconnected to encourage them to leave – in order to make way for the redevelopment of parts of the city which will host the contest. Some have even been arrested on concocted charges and held in custody so that their homes could be demolished.

There is no public oversight of this process. The BBC, who have broken the story internationally, have been refused interviews with those directing the construction work. In Azerbaijan itself, according to a report by the Council of Europe, there is no free media to hold the government to account, and bloggers and journalists critical of government policy are routinely arrested and imprisoned. Even academics have been detained for criticising the errors in the government's school text books.

At the same time Wikileaks has shown that, from the bungled negotiations with investors to the excesses of the country's elite, Azerbaijan is a state run for the needs of a few influential groups. The systematic repression of its peoples, and the persecution of religious groups, are a necessary part of maintaining minority control over Azerbaijan's mineral wealth. That in turn creates a problem for the West, which has thus far tolerated these abuses because of Azerbaijan's key role in Central Asia, and recent Middle East conflicts.

It's also rather ironic that whilst Eurovision is considered a gay/transgender icon, Azerbaijan is not a safe country for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in 2001, the LGBT community suffers police harassment and brutality, including bashings, blackmail, intimidation, bribery and invasions of privacy. They have no legal protection against discrimination and systematic homophobic prejudice from state organisations.

The Azerbaijani government closely associates Eurovision success with its own, and staging the event will only add to the self-aggrandisement practised by the state. By holding this event in Azerbaijan the European Broadcasting Union are sanitising human rights abuses with glamour, popularising repression with pop songs, and reinforcing the antidemocratic rule of a wealthy elite by showcasing a state whose government flouts the human rights principles established by the Council of Europe.

However, the position for the BBC is arguably worse. Their journalists have produced a string of condemnatory reports on the situation in Azerbaijan (linked throughout this document). At the same time, in a recent speech, the Chair of the BBC Trust stressed the importance of a free press and independence from government control to ensure the maintenance of democracy. But in contrast to this worthy position, over the next few months the BBC will be planning its participation in the contest, leaving it open to claims of hypocrisy – because whilst it defends civil rights and press freedom in one part of the organisation, another will be organising its participation in the whitewashing of human rights abuses in Azerbaijan.

To highlight and demand action on the human rights abuses of Azerbaijan, the BBC, on behalf of the nation, should not participate in or screen next year's Eurovision Song Contest if it takes place in Azerbaijan. The BBC should lobby within the European Broadcasting Union to withdraw the event from Azerbaijan, and move it to a European state which properly upholds human rights.



Action ideas

We suggest that people complain directly to the BBC, as the UK partner in the Eurovision contest, and to the European Broadcasting Union. We're not specifying any particular form of objection, but we suggest that you question whether participation in the Eurovision contest is valid given that staging the event will endorse/validate the human rights abuses that will be an implicit part of its production.

Here are the relevant contact details:

Links/background information


For more detailed background information to compile your complaint see:



END



Creative Commons 'cc-by-nc-sa' Logo Firefox 48x48 icon Logo The Free Range Activism Website (FRAW) – http://www.fraw.org.uk/
© 1996-2012, Paul Mobbs/The Free Range Network. The content of this site is released under open copyright licences. For further information about this site contact the Free Range Network. This site has been designed and optimised for use with the Firefox and other open source/standards compliant web browsers running under Gnu/Linux.