With over 6,000 athletes, 50 participating countries, significant funding, and a rarely discussed host nation, the inaugural European Games have all the makings for a perfect media storm.
But Friday’s Opening Ceremony press frenzy will lack a few critical members, as multiple press and advocacy entities including The Guardian, Amnesty International, and London-based website, Platform have released reports accusing host nation Azerbaijan of refusing press clearance into the country despite prior contact or approval.
“It is always a matter of concern when a sports journalist wishing to cover a sporting event is refused access,” said a statement from European Olympic Committee president Patrick Hickey, who described the incidences of press barring as, “completely against the spirit of sport.”
The two week long European Games mirror other Olympic-style continental and regional games, bringing together the best and the brightest athletes in Europe to compete for titles and the chance to move one step closer to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The Guardian was informed that their application for accreditation, and the corresponding visa, had been denied only three hours before chief sports correspondent Owen Gibson was scheduled to fly. The application denial was not communicated until Thursday — the day prior to opening festivities.
The Guardian believes that the barring is connected to Gibson’s trip to Azerbaijan at the end of 2014 to report on Game preparations in connection to the country’s questionable human and civil rights record. In an article titled, Turning black gold into sporting glitter: what Azerbaijan tells us about modern sport, Gibson highlights the country’s significant record of arrests related to freedom of expression and details the government’s crackdown on press and personal freedoms.
During the Summer and Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Charter regulations are in place, which require the country to support, at least to some extent, an infrastructure for media coverage of the events. However, the European Games are a product of the European Olympic Committee, which, according to Gibson, appears to provide less oversight. “At an Olympics the IOC can obviously exert some influence — at least during the window of the Games — whereas in this case the balance of power is completely skewed. The EOC has given up any sense of ownership of the event because it was so desperate to find a host,” said Gibson in an email interview with ThinkProgress. “I think Azerbaijan (is) worried about scrutiny of their crackdown on freedom of speech and wanted to remove any threat of criticism during the Games. Ironically, they may have just increased it.”
While in the country, Gibson met with journalist Khadija Ismayilova who was arrested in December. Ismayilova has since spent six months in pretrial detention despite objections from international human rights agencies who believe the charges to be a largely unfounded ploy to stifle Ismayilova’s investigative work. Gibson also met with several other government critics during his time in the country, and believes this may have contributed to the application refusal.
“I’m sure it was linked to the piece I wrote in December. I thought it was pretty fair and balanced but to Azeri eyes I suspect they saw it as giving house room to their critics,” Gibson said. “They argue that the concentration should be on sport rather than politics but when they have so entwined the two subjects it’s impossible to consider one without the other.”
Azerbaijan’s international press crackdown isn’t surprising when considering the country’s current and historical treatment of journalists and activists who openly oppose the government. This year, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Azerbaijan as the fifth most censored country in the world and Human Rights Watch reported that the “government’s poor record on freedom of expression, assembly, and association dramatically deteriorated during the year.”
In 2013 at least five journalists were convicted or arrested within the country, including Editor-In-Chief of opposition newspaper Nota Bene, Sardar Alibeyli. According to Human Rights Watch, Alibeyli was charged and convicted of multiple hooliganism charges, leading to a four-year prison sentence.
“The authorities have really gone after every independent voice, especially those journalists, human rights defenders, NGO leaders who have been vocal about sensitive issues embarrassing to the government such as corruption in the high level including the presidential family, abuse of office by police, and human rights violations,” Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists told ThinkProgress. “In the last couple years, the country have taken a very concentrated effort to cleanse society of these voices by pushing them behind bars.”
Although press barring is unusual, international sporting events have a long history of press infringement and monitoring. During the Sochi Olympics in Russia last year, rumors flew around the idea of a word-specific tracker that would allow systems to track individuals communicating certain trigger words as well as a program that would combine phone tracking with drone and roadside camera images. And during the Beijing Olympics, journalists experienced significant internet restrictions, despite promises of free, uncensored web browsing during the games. “The motif of Olympic movement leaders has been that sporting events are not politics, that politics and sports don’t mix, but the Olympic charter, which is the governing body of the Olympic movement, states that the organizers of the movement are required to guarantee media coverage to the fullest and freest extent possible,” said Ognianova, who coordinates CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program. “When we have a country who has put their independent press corps behind bars, it’s impossible to guarantee the fullest and freest coverage required under the charter.”
Modeled after the long-standing Asian Games and Pan-American Games, the Europe Games were created by the European Olympic Committee to encourage an increased focus on international sports competitions. The two week-long games will encompass 20 sports, including Olympic classics such as gymnastics, cycling, and triathlon along with four non-affiliated sports: beach soccer, sambo (a Russian martial art), three-on-three basketball, and karate. Some of the events will allow for immediate Olympic qualification, while others will award ranking points.
Azerbaijan was quick to jump at the opportunity to host after losing bids for both the 2015 and 2020 Summer Olympics, and sees the Games as a launching point for opportunities to host other major international events. However, with its human rights and political rap sheet starting to come into focus, it’s hard to tell if the European Games’ first spotlight will be shining on winning athletes or the host country’s internal politics and international press relations.