Azerbaijan Archives - Page 7 of 40 - Committee to Protect Journalists

A journalist films before a presidential press conference in Kiev on February 28, 2018. A Kiev prosecutor is refusing to return the passport of Turan TV's correspondent Fikret Huseynli. (AFP/Sergei Supinsky)

Prosecutor in Ukraine flouts court, refuses to return journalist’s passport

April 4, 2018 4:23 PM EDT

New York, April 4, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukrainian prosecutors to return the passport of Fikret Huseynli, a Dutch national of Azerbaijani origin, and to respect a district court’s April 2 ruling that the journalist should not be extradited to Azerbaijan or have his movements restricted.

A girl, draped in Azerbaijan's national flag, walks with a boy on a street in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan on June 18, 2015. (Reuters/Stoyan Nenov)

Azerbaijani court sentences local journalist to six years in prison

January 12, 2018 1:54 PM EST

New York, January 12, 2018–A district court in Azerbaijan today convicted veteran investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli on charges of illegally crossing the border, resisting police arrest, and contraband, and sentenced him to six years in prison, media reported.

Former Gambia President Yahya Jammeh, pictured in November 2016, is among the suspected human rights abusers to be penalized under the U.S. Magnitsky Act. (Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon)

Mixed first year, but Global Magnitsky Act could be strong tool in fight for justice

January 12, 2018 12:08 PM EST

In December, the U.S. government announced the names of those it will penalize under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act.

Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

December 13, 2017 12:00 AM EST

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

Russia and former Soviet states emboldened by declining press freedom in US, Europe

October 4, 2017 3:30 PM EDT

Receding media freedom in established European democracies and in the United States has emboldened authoritarian governments in Russia and other former Soviet countries to crack down on independent voices at home. I am sharing this information today with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe-known as the Helsinki Commission-and the House Freedom of…

French journalists Elise Lucet, right, and Laurent Richard answer reporters' questions outside a courtroom in a Paris suburb on September 5. Azerbaijan's government brought criminal defamation charges against the two journalists for calling the country a "dictatorship." (AP/Francois Mori)

Journalists on trial in France after calling Azerbaijan a dictatorship

September 7, 2017 3:58 PM EDT

New York, September 7, 2017–The French justice ministry should dismiss criminal defamation charges the government of Azerbaijan brought against journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard, and allow the pair to continue their work without obstruction, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The old city walls in downtown Baku. Azerbaijani authorities in the capital have detained the head of the Turan news agency. (AP/Sergey Ponomarev)

Azerbaijan detains head of Turan news agency

August 24, 2017 3:47 PM EDT

New York, August 24, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Azerbaijani authorities today to immediately release Mehman Aliyev, head of the country’s only independent news agency, Turan. Azerbaijan’s Tax Ministry today ordered Aliyev to be detained as part of an investigation launched against Turan last week into allegations of tax evasion, according to media…

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, shown here watching a parade before a Formula 1 race in Baku, June 25, 2017, has maintained strict control over the media over the course of his 14-year rule. (Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili)

Azerbaijani news agency’s office raided

August 17, 2017 3:14 PM EDT

New York, August 17, 2017–Azerbaijani authorities should stop harassing Turan, the country’s only independent news agency, and should allow it to work without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right) stands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left), and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an energy summit in Istanbul, October 10, 2016. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)

Newspaper financial director jailed in Azerbaijan

July 24, 2017 3:54 PM EDT

New York, July 24, 2017–An Azerbaijani court’s sentencing of Faiq Amirov, financial director of the independent newspaper Azadliq, is a further serious blow to press freedom in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Aleksandr Lapshin is escorted through Baku airport in February after being extradited from Belarus. An Azerbaijan court has jailed the blogger for three years. (AFP/Tofik Babayev)

Azerbaijan court sentences blogger to three years in jail

July 20, 2017 3:29 PM EDT

New York, July 20, 2017–A Baku court today convicted Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin to three years in jail for illegally crossing the state border, international and Azerbaijani media reported. The charges are related to three trips that Lapshin made between April 2011 and June 2016 to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan and Armenia…