Azerbaijan / Europe & Central Asia

New York, November 18, 2008–An Azerbaijani court convicted Ali Hasanov, editor-in-chief of the pro-government daily Ideal, on defamation charges and sentenced him to six months in jail, according to the head of the Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Emin Huseynov. 

The Web site EurasiaNet has an article today looking at concerns surrounding the shutdown of foreign radio broadcasts in Azerbaijan. We released an alert on this troubling development on November 3, expressing concern at plans by President Ilham Aliyev’s administration to discontinue the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

New York, November 3, 2008–CPJ is deeply troubled by a top regulator’s announcement on Friday that the Azerbaijani government plans next year to discontinue local radio transmissions of three international broadcasters–the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America (VOA).

October 2008News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

A week after the Committee to Protect Journalists released its special report on the current state of press freedom in Azerbaijan, “Finding Elmar’s Killers,” Ali Hasanov, head of public affairs at the office of President Ilham Aliyev, told local journalists: “Azerbaijan has done enough work to attain political pluralism, freedom of expression and of the…

CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova has a posting on The Guardian’s London-based “Comment is free” blog today about the continued repression of Azerbaijan’s independent press in the run-up to national elections. Read our special report about the dangerous situation for journalists in Azerbaijan, “Finding Elmar’s Killers,” here.Read Ognianova’s post at “Comment is free.”

The backstory of CPJ’s report on Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, an editor is jailed after investigating the unsolved murder of a colleague. The case has opened a window into widespread abuses in this tightly controlled nation on the Caspian Sea.

CPJ’s Washington Representative Frank Smyth has a posting on The Hill Blog today about how the FBI went through back channels to obtain phone records of New York Times and Washington Post journalists in Indonesia in 2004. The news that the FBI director is set to testify in front of Congress on this matter in…

New York, June 25, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by a Baku court’s decision on Tuesday to convict the editor of a small, minority newspaper on a treason charge and to sentence him to 10 years in prison. Novruzali Mamedov, editor of now-defunct Talyshi Sado (Voice of the Talysh), was tried in…