Azerbaijan sentences 7 journalists to prison in latest media crackdown

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Azerbaijan on Friday convicted a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist and six others on multiple charges, handing down prison sentences ranging from 7 1/2 to nine years in prison, RFE/RL and local media reported.
The verdict against RFE/RL's Farid Mehralizada and six journalists from Abzas Media, an independent Azerbaijani investigative outlet, marks the latest escalation in the country's crackdown on media. All seven journalists have dismissed the charges as politically motivated, and international rights groups have called for their release.
Mehralizada, a journalist with RFE/RL's Azerbaijani service and an economist, was sentenced to nine years in prison, RFE/RL reported. Nine-year sentences were also handed to Abzas Media's director Ulvi Hasanli, chief editor Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqizi) and investigative journalist Hafiz Babali. Reporters Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova were sentenced to eight years in prison, and deputy director Mahammad Kekelov — to 7 1/2 years, Abzas Media said.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a statement Friday condemned the sentences as 'outrageous' and 'the outcome of a purely political trial based on fabricated charges, aimed at silencing voices that expose corruption and injustice.'
'The Azerbaijani authorities may imprison journalists, but they cannot imprison the truth,' the group's editorial director Anne Bocandé said. 'RSF calls for the immediate release of all Abzas Media defendants and urges international actors to intensify pressure on Baku.'
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus in a statement Friday said Mehralizada was 'unjustifiably detained' and called for his release.
'Farid has already lost a great deal. Unjustifiably detained for more than a year, he missed the birth of his child, and now waits for elusive justice. Denying this man his fundamental rights is unnecessarily cruel. Instead of perpetuating this sham, it's time to reunite Farid with his family,' the statement read.
Six Abzas Media journalists were arrested in November 2023. The authorities claimed that they had found 40,000 euros in cash in the outlet's office in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, and accused them of conspiring foreign currency into Azerbaijan.
Mehralizada was arrested in May 2024 as part of the same case, even though both him and Abzas Media said that he never worked for the outlet. Later that year, authorities levied additional charges against Mehralizada and Azbas Media journalists, including illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, document forgery and others.
In his closing statement to the court, which RFE/RL shared with The Associated Press, Mehralizada said that 'the truth is that I have not committed any crime...Independent media is one of the greatest means of service to the state, the nation, and humanity. Unfortunately, journalism in our country today is almost equated with terrorism.'
Weeks before Mehralizada's arrest, in March 2024, Azerbaijani authorities targeted another news outlet, Toplum TV, with raids and arrests on similar charges. In December 2024, Azerbaijani authorities arrested six more journalists on smuggling charges, including five of those working for the independent Meydan TV news outlet.
Earlier this year, authorities withdrew press credentials from Voice of America and Bloomberg and shut down the BBC's office in Azerbaijan.
In a January 2025 report, Amnesty International said Azerbaijani authorities 'have systematically silenced independent media through politically motivated arrests' and that those arrests, as well as shutting down independent news outlets, 'demonstrate Azerbaijan's continued crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and media independence, with fabricated charges weaponized to stifle free media.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

State of Faith transition

This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night. I don't think anyone dreams of being a religion reporter when they grow up. It's not the type of job you bring up during playground debates on the relative merits of being a fireman, superhero or unicorn trainer. Instead, religion reporter is the type of role you start thinking of when you're already mostly grown. Some of my reporter friends adopted the dream while in college, as I did, while others were already full-time reporters when they discovered the magic of writing about faith. And it really is magic, if you ask me. Religion is an endlessly fascinating topic, the kind of beat that allows you to write about politics, sports, psychedelic mushrooms, outer space and reality TV all at once, as I did over the past 11 years at the Deseret News. But now, I'm stepping away from that magic, at least for a little while. I've accepted a job as managing editor of SCOTUSblog, where I'll still be able to dabble in religion writing, but mostly think about the Supreme Court. Even two weeks after making the decision, I'm still sort of shocked to read that sentence: I'm stepping away. I've loved this work and will miss it — and this newsletter! — dearly, but I feel confident that now is the right time to try something new and to reorient my relationship to religion. It's the right time to focus on my faith again, and not just faith stories. Although I'm moving on, this newsletter isn't going anywhere. My former editors at the Deseret News will keep it going with writers that I'm grateful to call my friends. Please keep following along and celebrating the wild, wonderful world of religion. The Supreme Court said no, but this legal battle lives on The faith-related surprise in a new survey on famous quotes As I noted above, my new job is with SCOTUSblog. The 'SCOTUS' part of the name is an acronym for Supreme Court of the United States. SCOTUSblog was founded in 2002 and provides in-depth, nonbiased analysis of the Supreme Court's work. It's perhaps best known for hosting a chatroom, or live blog, on Supreme Court decision days. SCOTUSblog was an important resource for me during my time at the Deseret News. I'm honored to now have an opportunity to help lead the site. The Forward's recent feature on a Jewish farmer in Illinois who is working with a dying synagogue in Pennsylvania is as powerful as it is surprising. It's a testament to what's possible when strangers become friends. Speaking of powerful stories, The Atlantic's recent essay on the death penalty left me wrestling with dozens of difficult, faith-related questions. In mid-May, Deseret's Margaret Darby had a chance to visit the set for 'The Chosen' in rural Utah. I loved the story she did about fans of the show who flew in from all over the world to help with filming. Thank you all for following my work. Your support has meant the world to me. I hope you'll share that same support with the new shepherds of this newsletter. The Deseret News does amazing work, and I'm looking forward to reading State of Faith week after week moving forward.

Washington Post

4 hours ago

• Washington Post

Layoff notices delivered to hundreds of Voice of America employees

Layoff notices were sent Friday to 639 employees of Voice of America and the U.S. agency that oversees it, effectively shutting down the outlet that has provided news to countries around the world since World War II. They included employees at VOA's Persian-language service who were suddenly called off administrative leave last week to broadcast reports to Iran following Israel's attack. Three journalists working for the Persian service on Friday, who left their office for a cigarette break, had their badges confiscated and weren't allowed back in, according to one fired employee.

CNN

4 hours ago

• CNN

Kari Lake follows through on Trump order, axes most of Voice of America's staff

After three months of legal battles and lobbying, the Voice of America network is officially being reduced to a fraction of its pre-Trump form. Widespread layoffs took place Friday at VOA and its parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media, or USAGM for short, which has led America's efforts to broadcast information around the world for decades. 'This move follows USAGM's firing of more than 500 contractors last month. It spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world,' three VOA journalists who sued to stop the terminations said in a joint statement. For President Donald Trump, who has been critical of VOA for years, Friday's firings are a political victory. When Trump signed an order in March to drastically shrink USAGM and several other federal agencies, the president and his pick to run VOA, Kari Lake, depicted US-funded international broadcasting as biased, bloated and obsolete. But advocates for the agency, including some Republican lawmakers, said the networks were a crucial tool for fighting disinformation and telling America's story to the world. Without the networks, there will be an 'empty space' in the global media, and 'Russia and Chinese propaganda will fill in,' Russian-American journalist Alsu Kermasheva warned. VOA was the biggest part of the agency, operating broadcast services and websites in many languages, and employing about 1,400 people. Trump's order in mid-March effectively silenced VOA, as staffers were placed on paid administrative leave and the broadcast platforms were put on hold. Lake said then that the agency was 'unsalvageable.' But on Friday, in a press release announcing the mass layoffs, Lake signaled that it will continue to exist in some stripped-down fashion. She said the 'lean and focused' agency would employ about 250 people in total. Lake previously promoted a plan to have One America News, a small far-right pro-Trump channel, provide content for VOA free of charge. Three VOA journalists who sued to stop the terminations, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, all received layoff notices on Friday. The trio said their legal fight would continue and called on Congress 'to continue its long tradition of bipartisan support for VOA.' 'Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the global information space with anti-American propaganda,' they said in a statement. 'Do not cede this ground by silencing America's voice.' The fate of USAGM's other networks, which are structured as nonprofit organizations that are funded through federal grants, is unclear. Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other grantees have been fighting to save their federal funding in the courts. Friday's press release made no mention of those networks. The messaging from Lake was all about enforcing Trump's order and cutting 'waste' in government. Last week, as the Israel-Iran conflict escalated, dozens of VOA staffers who had previously worked on Farsi-language programming were brought back to revive some US efforts to beam programming into Iran. Lake told Fox News that VOA's 'Persian news service is rising to the occasion' to cover the conflict. However, some of those staffers received layoff notices on Friday, journalists there said. Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.