Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has named Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili as ‘press freedom predators’ for their roles in repressing press freedom in their countries.
The RSF published a list of 34 press freedom predators on Sunday in commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
‘Their methods differ, but their objectives converge: silencing independent media voices and trampling on the right to news and information’, the RSF wrote. ‘Murder, imprisonment, smears, propaganda, troll armies — all these are means to impose silence.’
The list includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Israeli Army, and tech billionaire Elon Musk, among others.
Aliyev was listed as a ‘press predator’ for muzzling information in Azerbaijan, with the RSF saying that Azerbaijan had ‘become a media wasteland’ under his presidency. They cited his regime’s crackdown on independent media, its arrest of 26 journalists, and its sentencing of Abzas Media journalists to lengthy prison sentences.
Azerbaijan’s media crackdown began with the authorities’ raid of Abzas Media and the arrest and subsequent sentencing of several of their staff — including its director Ulvi Hasanli and editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi.
Azerbaijan has since detained journalists from several other media outlets, including Meydan TV, Toplum TV, and Kanal 13. It ranks 167th out of 180 on the 2025 RSF Press Freedom Index.
In turn, Ivanishvili was included on the list for his economic repression of media, with the RSF stressing that he ‘continues to be the centre around which power gravitates in Georgia despite his official withdrawal from political life’.
‘His business empire guarantees him decisive influence, with several commercial TV channels, including Imedi TV and Rustavi 2, broadcasting views in favour of Georgian Dream, the party he founded’, the RSF wrote.
They cited declining pluralism in Georgia under his influence and the government’s vilification and persecution of journalists, in addition to violent attacks carried out against media representatives ‘with impunity’.
They additionally cited Georgia’s two-year sentencing of media manager Mzia Amaghlobeli and its sabotaging of Georgia’s EU accession by failing to respect press freedom.
Georgia ranked 114th on the 2025 RSF Press Freedom Index.
Yousef Bardouka
