Azerbaijan

We issued the following statement after Azerbaijan's National Council on Television and Radio announced today that it would discontinue the local licenses of international broadcasters Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and the BBC as of January 1, 2009...

New York, November 18, 2008--An Azerbaijani court convicted Ali Hasanov, editor-in-chief of the pro-government daily Ideal, on defamation charges and sentenced him to six months in jail, according to the head of the Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Emin Huseynov. 

The Web site EurasiaNet has an article today looking at concerns surrounding the shutdown of foreign radio broadcasts in Azerbaijan. We released an alert on this troubling development on November 3, expressing concern at plans by President Ilham Aliyev's administration to discontinue the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

New York, November 3, 2008--CPJ is deeply troubled by a top regulator's announcement on Friday that the Azerbaijani government plans next year to discontinue local radio transmissions of three international broadcasters--the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America (VOA).

October 2008

A week after the Committee to Protect Journalists released its special report on the current state of press freedom in Azerbaijan, "Finding Elmar's Killers," Ali Hasanov, head of public affairs at the office of President Ilham Aliyev, told local journalists:

"Azerbaijan has done enough work to attain political pluralism, freedom of expression and of the press. We do not accept pretenses to the contrary. We do not accept reports, no matter which international organization is their author. ... The presentation of separate cases as a general tendency is, unfortunately, evidence that this is being done in someone's interest, to benefit certain interested parties." 

CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova has a posting on The Guardian's London-based "Comment is free" blog today about the continued repression of Azerbaijan's independent press in the run-up to national elections. Read our special report about the dangerous situation for journalists in Azerbaijan, "Finding Elmar's Killers," here.

The backstory of CPJ's report on Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, an editor is jailed after investigating the unsolved murder of a colleague. The case has opened a window into widespread abuses in this tightly controlled nation on the Caspian Sea.

CPJ's Washington Representative Frank Smyth has a posting on The Hill Blog today about how the FBI went through back channels to obtain phone records of New York Times and Washington Post journalists in Indonesia in 2004. The news that the FBI director is set to testify in front of Congress on this matter in September has revived debate over the need for a federal shield law to protect journalists' First Amendment rights.

Read Smyth's post at The Hill Blog.