Toplum TV

New York, June 10, 2026 —The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijan to drop charges against journalists and other individuals associated with leading independent news outlet Toplum TV after prosecutors on June 8 requested prison terms of up to 16 years on charges related to receipt and use of foreign funds. “The outrageous prison…

After 18 months, Azerbaijan’s vast media crackdown shows no signs of abating, as police arrested two independent journalists, Ulviyya Ali and Ahmad Mammadli, on the night of May 6-7. The arrests bring the total number of journalists and media workers jailed in Azerbaijan since late 2023 to at least 25, with several others facing major…

New York, March 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijan’s February 20 arrest of Nurlan Gahramanli and February 28 arrest of Fatima Mövlamli — both freelance reporters for Germany-based outlet Meydan TV — on currency smuggling charges. “The latest arrests in Azerbaijan’s unprecedented media crackdown show more clearly than ever that authorities’ real goal…

New York, February 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a February 6 Azerbaijani court decision remanding Toplum TV presenter Shahnaz Baylargizi to 3 ½ months in pretrial detention over foreign funding allegations and calls for her immediate release. “Veteran journalist Shahnaz Baylargizi’s arrest underscores how Azerbaijani authorities are exploiting allegations of Western funding to silence leading independent…

New York, January 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by Azerbaijani authorities to bring six new charges against four Toplum TV journalists and the Friday arrest of the independent news outlet’s reporter Farid Ismayilov, who was remanded into pretrial custody.  “The new charges against Toplum TV underscores an unprecedented media crackdown waged by Azerbaijani authorities,” said…

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…

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 donor funding. The charges have…

Stockholm, March 19, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the release of Kanal 13 director Aziz Orujov and reporter Shamo Eminov, whose pretrial detention was extended on Tuesday, along with eight others being held on similar charges. “As Azerbaijani courts have once again rubber-stamped the detention of yet more journalists on allegations of illegally…

Stockholm, March 11, 2024—Azerbaijani authorities should release Toplum TV’s founder Alasgar Mammadli and journalist Mushfig Jabbar, drop all charges against the independent news outlet’s staff, and allow the media to work freely and without reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On March 6, dozens of plainclothes police officers in the capital, Baku, raided…

Stockholm, June 30, 2023—Azerbaijan authorities must ensure journalists can cover protests without obstruction and should investigate reports of police violence against members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Since June 22, Azerbaijani police have detained, beaten, threatened, or otherwise obstructed the work of at least six journalists reporting on environmental protests…