Azerbaijan dictatorship supported by F1 boss Ecclestone

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This video says about itself:

Amal Clooney: ‘Why I’m defending Azerbaijani journalist (Khadija Ismayilova)’ – BBC News

26 April 2016

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is representing award-winning Azerbaijan reporter Khadija Ismayilova at the European Court of Human Rights. Ms Ismayilova, an outspoken critic of the government, was jailed 18 months ago. Ms Clooney has been speaking to the BBC about the journalist’s case, and also gave her views on Republican presidential nomination front runner Donald Trump.

After Formula One fat cat Ecclestone earlier on expressed his suport for Margaret Thatcher, for Adolf Hitler and for the royal dictatorship in Bahrain, he has found another thing to support.

By Kadeem Simmonds:

Formula One: Journalists should be imprisoned, says Ecclestone

Friday 17th June 2016

F1 supremo backs the locking up of writers who criticise government of Azerbaijan

Bernie Ecclestone agreed yesterday that journalists who speak out against their government should be imprisoned.

With Azerbaijan hosting its first Formula One race this weekend, the sport has faced plenty of criticism with campaign groups, Amnesty International being the most recent, calling on the sport to take a public stance against the oil-rich state’s human rights record.

However, when put to Ecclestone that some journalists had been prosecuted for speaking out against president Ilham Aliyev’s regime, he replied: “So they should. It depends what they say. You say they write negative things. It depends what they write.

“I tell you what we ought to do — as far as we are concerned — not have any races where there is corruption in the country. Can you tell me where we are going to be racing?”

Human Rights campaigners have accused Aliyev’s regime of wrongful imprisonment of journalists and bloggers, freezing financial public resources and restrictive legislation.

They also claim that media outlets critical of Aliyev’s government have been harassed and intimidated and subsequently forced to close, while four journalists have also died in custody since 2005, according to Sport for Rights.

Ecclestone was fielding questions after Amnesty International released a statement on Wednesday night saying: “Formula One should use its influence and publicly call on the Azerbaijan authorities to end their crackdown on human rights.”

In response, the Formula One supremo said that the sport has a “100 per cent” clear conscience ahead of Sunday’s race on the streets of capital city Baku.

Top-ranking Formula One officials met with Sport For Rights — another campaign group which urged Ecclestone to speak out against Aliyev’s regime, and call for the release of political prisoners — last Monday. Further discussions have also been planned.

“Yes, we are [taking the issue seriously], of course,” added Ecclestone, who was not present at the talks. “We have been in correspondence and we have assurance from here that they are looking into all these things.

“We listen, obviously, and if people have got a genuine complaint there is not a lot we can do, because in all fairness I think you would get into trouble in most countries if you were very, very anti some government or political people, or in fact anybody, so it is not quite as easy as that.”

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