New York, May 20, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the safety of Agil Khalil, a reporter for the opposition daily Azadlyg who has been assaulted several times in the past three months. Authorities have taken no measures to guarantee his protection, according to local CPJ sources. On May 10, Khalil tried…
New York, May 9, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by continuing attacks on Agil Khalil, a reporter with the Azerbaijani opposition daily Azadlyg (Freedom). On Wednesday afternoon, at least two unidentified men tried to push Khalil onto the tracks of a Baku subway. Later that same day, two young men tried to kidnap…
New York, March 14, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces yesterday’s brutal attack on Agil Khalil, a reporter with the opposition daily Azadlyg (Freedom). Four unidentified assailants encircled Khalil as he was leaving his office in the evening; one stabbed him in the chest, according to the Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS).…
New York, March 7, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by the four-year prison term given today to Genimet Zakhidov, editor of the opposition daily Azadlyg (Freedom). Zakhidov was charged with hooliganism and inflicting minor bodily harm in November. He has been in custody ever since. Zakhidov was secretly brought to the Yasamal District…
Rewriting the Law to Make Journalism a CrimeBy Nina OgnianovaIn its 17 years on the air, Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy Radio has enjoyed, by Russian standards, extraordinary editorial independence. Nearly alone among Russian broadcasters in its critical approach, the station employs some of the country’s most outspoken journalists, who produce in-depth reporting on the most sensitive…
AZERBAIJAN Ignoring international opinion, the authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev clamped down on opposition and independent media and became the world’s fifth-leading jailer of journalists, with nine reporters and editors behind bars when CPJ conducted its annual census on December 1. On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, CPJ ranked the oil-rich Caspian Sea…
JANUARY 28-30, 2008 Posted February 1, 2008 Uzeyir Jafarov, Baku Zaman THREATENED Jafarov, a reporter of the independent daily Baku Zaman and a former editor of the now-shuttered Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, said he received numerous death threats from anonymous callers. Jafarov said the calls began after he wrote critical stories about the army and…
New York, January 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an Azerbaijani appellate court’s decision today to uphold the 2007 conviction of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan. Fatullayev was convicted in October 2007 on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred, and tax evasion,…
New York, December 28, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s pardon of five journalists imprisoned in Azerbaijan, but it calls on President Ilham Aliyev to free the three journalists who remain unjustly jailed. Samir Sadagatoglu, Rafiq Tagi, Faramaz Novruzoglu, Rovshan Kebirli, and Yashar Agazadeh were among 114 prisoners pardoned by presidential decree. The five…