While more than 20 journalists were arrested and dozens of journalists and activists got a travel ban by the Azerbaijani government, the country’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has fallen 13 places. According to the latest report by the Reporters Without Borders, another country in the South Caucasus region – Georgia also fell 26 places, while Armenia increased its ranking.
In late November 2023, the Azerbaijani government started a crackdown on independent media outlets by arresting the director, deputy director and editor-in-chief of Abzas Media. As the crackdown continued more team members of Abzas Media, managers of Kanal13 and Kanal 11, were detained, and a criminal investigation was launched against all of them.
The pressure was not only against the media but also on activists, who were detained including Tofig Yagublu, and Mohaddin Orujov.
Following the early presidential elections, the second wave of the crackdown was started and as a result, the office of Toplum TV was sealed, members and speakers of the political movement “The Third Republic” were detained, and an investigation was opened based on the same article of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan – smuggling. Abzas Media and Toplum TV journalists, all are accused of smuggling of foreign currency.
On the same day, the Instagram account of Toplum TV was taken down, and its YouTube channel was renamed and 5,000 videos were deleted. Alasgar Mammadli, well-known Azerbaijani media lawyer and founder of Toplum Tv, was also detained and according to his wife police “discovered” 60,000 euros at their apartment.
Ramil Babayev, Ali Zeynalov, Mushviq Jabbarov, Ilkin Amrahov, reporters of Toplum TV, and Akif Gurbanov, a speaker of the Third Republic Platform and Ruslan Izzatli member of the Third Republic Platform, were sent to pre-trial detention period for several months.
Besides arrests, at least 4 journalists journalists and 2 activists got travel bans and some of them were summoned to the police for interrogation.
What happens now?
Currently, in total more than 20 journalists are in jail and very few independent media outlets remain that continue their work.
The founder of the meclis.info initiative Imran Aliyev detained on 24 April and allegedly beaten and tortured with electric shocks to force him to sign documents and confess to the charges. The following day he was sent to two months of pre-trial detention.
As the government started discussions about the possible early parliamentary elections, another arrest happened the most recently. Anar Mammadli, the head of the Center for Election Monitoring and Democracy Education (EMDT), an election expert, was detained on April 29 and accused of smuggling. According to his lawyer, his case was also connected to Abzas Media and Anar Mammadli’s house also was searched on the same day.
