Azerbaijan / Europe & Central Asia

New York, November 11, 2024—With the opening of the United Nations annual climate talks in Azerbaijan on Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on visiting delegations to press Azerbaijan to end its unprecedented media crackdown. “With at least 15 journalists awaiting trial on charges that could see them jailed for between eight and 20…

CPJ and 16 other international human rights organizations on Wednesday called on the European Union to press Azerbaijan to release around a dozen jailed journalists and improve its dire human rights record as the country hosts the United Nations Climate Change Conference on November 11-22, 2024. The statement highlights how, in the months leading up…

New York, November 6, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist with U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani service, known locally as Radio Azadliq, who has been detained on currency smuggling charges since May. On October 30, RFE/RL issued a statement calling for…

New York, October 4, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the extended pretrial detentions of 11 journalists in recent weeks, and calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release them ahead of the COP29 climate conference in November. “The continued incarceration of 11 journalists from Azerbaijan’s last remaining critical media outlets cynically ensures that the country’s boldest…

CPJ joined 10 other civil society organizations on Wednesday in urging the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to further pressure Azerbaijan over its “grave human rights situation” and to stop its crackdown on critical voices. In January, PACE voted to exclude Azerbaijan’s delegation because the country had not “fulfilled major commitments” on…

New York, September 20, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalist calls on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release researcher and freelance journalist Bahruz Samadov, detained since August 21 on treason charges. “As Azerbaijan’s crackdown widens to envelop ever more journalists, activists, and academics, Bahruz Samadov’s penetrating critiques of Azerbaijani authoritarianism and militarism amid the ongoing…

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Azerbaijani government to release over a dozen jailed journalists and reform the country’s deeply restrictive media laws in a letter signed by 25 organizations ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference on November 11-22, 2024, in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani authorities have charged 13 journalists over the past year for alleged violations…

New York, September 10, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a swift investigation into the September 6 detention and transfer of Azerbaijani journalist Shahla Karim, who was released several hours later. “In yet another example of the harassment of media and lawlessness in Azerbaijan, journalist Shahla Karim was forcibly removed and transported hundreds of…

New York, August 20, 2024—Azerbaijani investigators charged six journalists from anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media with seven new economic crimes in relation to alleged funding from Western donor organizations in recent days. “Azerbaijani authorities’ move to throw new charges against Abzas Media’s jailed investigative journalists is testament to the vindictive impulse behind their prosecution of…

Stockholm, July 11, 2024 – Azerbaijani authorities have extended the pretrial detentions of 11 journalists in recent weeks as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country’s few remaining independent media outlets. The journalists are among 13 media workers from four independent outlets charged since November with currency smuggling related to alleged receipt of Western…