Azerbaijan

Authorities in Azerbaijan have refused to investigate an attack on two newspaper journalists, Yeni Musavat reporter Elmin Badalov and Milli Yol deputy editor Anar Gerayly, by a wealthy businessman’s private security guards. The two journalists were photographing luxury homes in the Baku neighbourhood of Shuvlan on July 28 when they were attacked and beaten by security guards. The guards held them...

The police prevented the staff of the opposition newspaper Azadlig from entering its premises Monday at the behest of Agbey Askerov, the head of the state-owned publishing house Azerbaijan, which prints the newspaper, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Askerov is demanding immediate repayment of a debt of 15,000 manats (15,000 euros), which he says dates...

Presidential Administration guards in Azerbaijan on Tuesday detained photographers covering a demonstration over flood relief measures, according to Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS). IRFS and Turan Information Agency employees Javid Gurbanov and Mehman Huseynov, Radio Liberty correspondent Abbas Atilay and "Bizim Yol" newspaper correspondent Haji Zeynalov were detained by the...

Azerbaijan’s representative to the European Court of Human Rights, Chingiz Askerov, has said that the reason his government appealed against the court’s April 22 ruling, calling for the release of imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, was that it was “contrary to international norms.” Even if the court’s Grand Chamber upholds the original decision, Fatullayev will not be released without a...

Azerbaijan’s representative to the European Court of Human Rights has announced that his government appealed Friday against a ruling issued by the court in April ordering Azerbaijan to free Eynulla Fatullayev, an opposition newspaper editor who has been held since April 20, 2007. Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) over what will happen to Fatullayev and regards this announcement as...

Azerbaijan’s Garadagh District Court in Baku on Tuesday sentenced imprisoned independent editor Eynulla Fatullayev to two and a half years in a strict-regime prison after finding him guilty of drug possession. Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, has already served more than three years of an eight and a half year term on a series of fabricated charges...

Azerbaijani authorities illegally confiscated footage and reporting from Norwegian television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl on Thursday, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Borgen, who has his own documentary production company, was working with Dahl on a film about freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, focusing on the case of imprisoned journalist Eynulla...

Azerbaijani authorities must comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ decision ordering the immediate release of imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, has been jailed for three years on fabricated charges. The Strasbourg-based European Court has recently ruled that...

Azerbaijani editor Genimet Zakhidov, who served more than half of a four-year term on fabricated “hooliganism” charges, was released from prison on Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. “We're relieved Azerbaijani officials released our colleague Genimet Zakhidov, who served 28 long months in prison in retaliation for his critical journalism,” CPJ Europe and Central...

A death threat has been made against imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, and his family, according to CPJ. An anonymous male caller telephoned Emin Fatullayev, the editor’s father, at his Baku home at around 12:30 p.m. today and said he and his son must “shut up once and for all” or “the entire family will be destroyed,” the elder...