CPJ introduces 2009 International Press Freedom Awardees

Washington, November 19, 2009—Naziha Réjiba, editor of the Tunisian online news journal Kalima, said she knows what to expect when she returns home—surveillance, harassment, and threats conducted by one the world’s most repressive governments.

New York, November 11, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s prison sentences given to two video bloggers detained in July on fabricated charges of “hooliganism” and “inflicting minor bodily harm.” 

New York, October 9, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prison sentences given to journalists at the weekly newspaper Nota on defamation charges on Thursday.

New York, August 27, 2009--Azerbaijani authorities should drop all charges against video bloggers who satirized the government, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, August 18, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an independent investigation into the death on Monday in a Baku prison hospital of Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, who had been in state custody since February 2007. 

New York, May 22, 2009--A district court judge in Baku has sentenced Nazim Guliyev, an editor and the founder of the pro-government newspaper Ideal, to six months in prison on defamation charges, the Azeri Press Agency (APA) reported. Guliyev was jailed immediately.

May 2009

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

We issued the following statement after authorities released Ali Hasanov, editor of the pro-government daily Ideal, who had been serving a six-month jail term for criminal defamation. The journalist served all but one month of his sentence and was freed under the Pardon Act passed by parliament last month...

New York, April 9, 2009--Following today's release of independent journalists Sakit Zakhidov and Asif Marzili in Azerbaijan, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Azerbaijani authorities to free the remaining journalists serving jail terms on trumped-up criminal charges. 

New York, April 8, 2009--A district court in Baku has sentenced Asif Marzili, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Tezadlar, to one year in prison on charges of defaming managers and professors of Azerbaijan International University, the Azeri Press Agency reported. Ruling on Tuesday, the court also handed down a six-month suspended corrective labor sentence to Tezadlar freelancer Zumrud Mammedova in the same case.