The Azerbaijani leadership has decided to 'revenge' the foreign journalists that have recently attended the 5th International Media Forum "At the Foot of Mount Ararat" in Yerevan, Armenia.
According to Azerbaijani media outlets, 30 participants in the Forum made a tour of Karabakh, met with the NRK leadership and visited the local sights. In response, Baku has blacklisted all the 30 journalists and banned them from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani Millit Mejlis Speaker Hikmet Haciyev said the journalists who "illegally visited the occupied lands of Azerbaijan" will face "relevant measures."
In August 2013, Baku published the first "blacklist" of foreigners who are banned from entering the country because they traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh. Now, the list comprises 331 foreigners, including French, Australian, and Russian parliamentarians who observed the elections in Nagorny Karabakh, politicians, senators, European parliamentarians, journalists, artists and others. Among the personas non-grata are EU SR Peter Semneby Swedish diplomat, Bernard Fournier French Senator, Wolfgang Benzel Bundestag member, several students of John Hopkins University who visited Karabakh for education purposes, OSCE coordinator for ecology and economy Bernard Snow and many others.