Eurovision campaign spotlights Azerbaijan 'rights abuses'

Activists will use the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan in 2012 to pressure the authorities into improving the human rights situation in the country, a campaigner said on Wednesday. A group of Azerbaijani rights organisations have launched a campaign titled 'Music of Freedom in a Non-Free Country' that calls on the government to release alleged political prisoners, improve media freedom and lift restrictions on demonstrations before the pop extravaganza in Baku next year. "Holding such a contest (in Azerbaijan) is a chance to change the situation for the better," one of the campaign's organisers, Anar Mamedli, told AFP. The campaigners hope that Eurovision -- the most high-profile cultural event in the country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 -- will focus international attention on the government's internal policies. "Azerbaijan should act not only as a host of the song contest but also as a real member of the European family which respects democratic values," said a statement on the campaign's Facebook page. The group plans to hold public debates, publish and distribute posters and other materials, and appeal to the head of the organising committee who is Azerbaijan's First Lady, Mehriban Aliyeva. There was nationwide jubilation when Azerbaijani duo Ell and Nikki won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Duesseldorf, Germany in May, which guaranteed that the 2012 competition would be held in Baku. The authorities believe that the event will boost the image of the mainly Muslim country, until now mainly known as an energy exporter on Europe's fringe that went through war and political turmoil after the Soviet collapse. Despite prosecutions of journalists and crackdowns on opposition protests, officials have consistently rejected complaints about a lack of democratic freedoms, pointing instead to political stability and economic development funded by huge oil and gas revenues.