New York, December 26, 2006–Four unidentified men severely beat Nijat Huseynov, a reporter for the Baku-based opposition daily Azadlyg, on Monday morning, according to local and international press reports. Huseynov told the Turan news agency that he had received anonymous threatening phone calls recently. The callers made reference to Huseynov’s work but did not cite…
New York, December 7, 2006—The Azerbaijan Court of Appeals should reverse a ruling excluding defense witnesses in the appeal of Sakit Zakhidov and release the ailing journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today . The court ruled Monday not to hear witnesses for the defense or further investigate the case against Zakhidov, a prominent…
New York, December 7, 2006–The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work increased for the second consecutive year, and one in three is now an Internet blogger, online editor, or Web-based reporter, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
New York, November 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the government closure of Azerbaijan’s oldest independent radio and television broadcaster, and the harassment of independent and opposition print media. Authorities sealed facilities and confiscated broadcast equipment on November 24 of the Azerbaijan News Service (ANS), local media reported. The closure of the Baku-based outlet…
New York, November 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of two independent journalists in Azerbaijan over an article that authorities claim insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Samir Sadagatoglu, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Senet, and reporter Rafiq Tagi, were detained after publishing an article on November 1 titled “Europe and Us.” Tagi, the…
New York, October 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the three-year prison sentence given today to a critical journalist in Azerbaijan on what local press freedom activists called trumped up drug charges. Sakit Zakhidov, a prominent reporter and satirist for the daily opposition newspaper Azadlyg, was convicted of drug use by a court in…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by an intense crackdown on opposition and independent journalists who have been critical of public officials. In particular, we wish to call your attention to the cases of journalists Shakhin Agabeili, Eynulla Fatullayev, Fikret Faramazoglu, and Sakit Zakhidov. In a disturbing trend, several public officials have filed about a dozen politicized lawsuits against critical journalists in the past three months. Among the plaintiffs is Interior Minister Ramil Usubov who filed five defamation lawsuits against Agabeili, Fatullayev and Faramazoglu. We condemn this campaign of harassment of Azerbaijan’s independent press and call on you to do everything within your power to stop it.
New York, August 10, 2006-A judge in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, today convicted the editor of an Azeri-language independent newspaper on a charge of criminally defaming a leader of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party, according to international news reports. Shakhin Agabeili, editor-in-chief of Milli Yol, was sentenced to a year in prison in connection with…
New York, July 27, 2006—A former Interior Ministry officer facing trial on a series of charges including murder and kidnapping said in court on Tuesday that he took part in another, unrelated killing—the March 2005 murder of Elmar Huseynov, founder and editor of the Baku-based opposition weekly news magazine Monitor, according to local and international…
New York, July 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the worsening heath of journalist Sakit Zakhidov, who is being held on drug possession charges that local press freedom activists and independent journalists say are fabricated. Sakit Zakhidov, a prominent reporter and satirist for the Baku-based daily opposition newspaper Azadliq has been in…