Podcast | Azerbaijan’s media crackdown continues

21 March 2024

In early March, Azerbaijani police raided the offices of Toplum TV and arrested several of their journalists on charges of smuggling. The targeting of the independent outlet was the latest in Azerbaijan’s ongoing crackdown on media in the country.

This week, we speak to Toplum TV journalist Alya Aghayeva about Azerbaijan’s crackdown on their outlet, and to Leyla Mustafayeva, who became the interim editor-in-chief of AbzasMedia in exile. AbzasMedia was the first outlet to be targeted by the authorities in November.

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AbzasMedia

Explainer | One year on in Azerbaijan’s crackdown on independent media

Aytan Farhadova

••6 min read

November 2023 was a black month for journalists working for Azerbaijan’s independent media outlet and OC Media partner AbzasMedia, marking the beginning of a renewed crackdown against independent media. On 20 November 2023, police raided the offices of AbzasMedia, claiming to have found €40,000 ($44,000) in cash during their search. Earlier that day, both the media site’s director, Ulvi Hasanli, and its deputy director, Mahammad Kekalov, were detained at their homes. Hasanli alleged that he

Mahammad Kekalov, Nargiz Absalamova, and Farid Mehralizade.

AbzasMedia

Azerbaijan presses new charges against three detained in AbzasMedia case

Aytan Farhadova

••2 min read

Azerbaijani police have pressed new charges against two of AbzasMedia’s staff members and an economist detained during the crackdown on independent media. The chief investigator of the Baku City Police Department on Friday charged AbzasMedia’s deputy director Mahammad Kekalov, journalist Nargiz Absalamova, and unaffiliated economist Farid Mehralizade with illegal entrepreneurship, smuggling assets as part of an organised group, tax evasion, and falsifying documents. If found guilty under the

Economist Farid Mehralizade. Image via social media.

AbzasMedia

Azerbaijani economist ‘kidnapped’ and detained in AbzasMedia case

Aytan Farhadova

••2 min read

Azerbaijani economist Farid Mehralizade was detained as part of the government’s crackdown on AbzasMedia, despite not having any ties to the independent news outlet. Mehralizade was expected to testify in the AbzasMedia case on Saturday, but was reportedly abducted and detained two days earlier, on 30 May. His wife, Nargiz Mukhtarova, said that her husband disappeared in the early morning of 30 May, and was escorted to their home by the police around noon that day. ‘The police brought him

Imran Aliyev as he was getting arrested. Image via Jamnews.

AbzasMedia

Detained Azerbaijani journalist allegedly beaten by police

Aytan Farhadova

••1 min read

Journalist Imran Aliyev has allegedly been beaten and tortured by Azerbaijani police after being arrested on charges of smuggling as part of a group. Aliyev, the founder of meclis.info, was arrested on Thursday, and remanded to two months of pre-trial detention the following day. Speaking outside court on Friday, Aliyev stated that he had been beaten and tortured with electric shocks to force him to sign documents and confess to the charges. Aliyev added that he considers the accusation b