As media crackdown continues, BBC News Azerbaijan closes its office

Yesterday, BBC News Azerbaijan shuttered its office and issued a statement saying the Azerbaijani government had ordered the outlet to suspend its operations.

The BBC said it has taken a ‘reluctant decision’ to close its office in the country,  adding that ‘we deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom.’

A spokesperson for the BBC noted the decision would impact their reporting in and from Azerbaijan.

On 13 February, the Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet APA reported, citing a government source, that BBC News Azerbaijan and the Russian state-funded Sputnik Azerbaijan outlet would stop their work in the country.

APA also said that both outlets should decrease their staff to one person in order to ensure parity between the activities of Azerbaijani state media abroad and foreign journalists within the country.

After this news was published, BBC representatives tried to meet with the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, but did not receive a response.

Following the BBC’s statement yesterday, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada characterised the comments as a ‘politicisation of the issue of termination of the activities of the BBC representative office’, and said that connecting the closure to the issue of media freedom was ‘regrettable and unacceptable’.

‘Azerbaijan’s position and decisions on media outlets of all foreign countries are always based on the principle of reciprocity. In this context, as a result of the review process, as well as following the country’s legislation [...] there is no legal basis for the BBC to operate as a representative office in our country’, the statement read.

Hajizada also stated that the BBC would only be allowed accreditation for one correspondent, as opposed to at least six journalists who were permanently stationed there previously.

The BBC stated that it ‘has only learned of the request verbally; the company has not received any written responses from the Azerbaijani government and has sought clarification through a number of channels’.

They additionally said that their journalistic team in Baku had suspended operations and was investigating the order, but added that it would continue to broadcast in Azerbaijani.

The BBC’s Azerbaijani language service has been operating since 1994, first on the radio, and then online. The media outlet suspended its Azerbaijani language radio broadcasts in 2011, following the Azerbaijani government’s decision to stop broadcasting foreign radio stations on FM. Since then, the BBC has expanded its online presence in Azerbaijani.

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