Bucharest, 17th of November 2009 – World Bloggers outspeak their support to two imprisoned video blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan as well as all persecuted, detained and imprisoned bloggers throughout the world.
Considering the sentencing of two video blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan which coincided with the final day of the 1st World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania, the general assembly of world bloggers gathered for the forum condemns any form of repression against online liberties and freedom of speech as a common standard of achievement for bloggers and Internet users all over the world. The trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli represents just one more example of an increasingly worrying trend . Therefore:
- We, the bloggers, declare that the rights and freedoms of Internet users, national and international, should be universal among states, people, territories and under any jurisdiction.
- We, the bloggers, believe that free blogging starting from today should be considered one of the fundamental freedoms earned as a natural human right.
- We, the bloggers, will promote a world in which Internet users shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and repression in any form.
We, the general assembly of the World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania, are deeply concerned about the continuing deterioration of the situation in Azerbaijan and join others such as the Presidency of the European Union , the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International , and Reporters Without Borders as well as many others in condemning the imprisonment and sentencing of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade in Baku, Azerbaijan. Amnesty International has also declared Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli to be prisoners of conscience.
The World Blogging Forum also recognizes the two video blogging youth activists as Free Voices of the Internet and as members of the World Blogging Family.
Read at 12:00 in Romania at The World Blogging Forum in Bucharest.
