Disconnection: Dwindling Media Independence and Freedoms in Azerbaijan

In February alone, international news outlets BBC, Voice of America, Bloomberg, and Rossiya Segodnya, all saw their accreditations stripped, while the local Turan Information Agency announced it would cease operations due to financial limitations.

Even worse, Azerbaijan continued its purge of independent and opposition journalists with a list of arrests that includes Shahnaz Beylargizi, Fatima Mövlamli, Aziz Orujov, Shamshad Agha, and Nurlan Gahramanov Libre, all finding themselves forcibly removed from the media space.

The majority of arrested journalists were charged with smuggling, which, according to Karol Łuczka, the Eastern Europe advocacy lead at the International Press Institute, is often a way to target media supported by foreign funding.

“The charges of smuggling of foreign currency appear to have been the government twisting grant funding into currency smuggling,” Łuczka told Vlast.

While the reason behind the fast pace of the latest crackdown remains unclear, Azerbaijan has a history of poor performance in press freedom – it ranked 164/180 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 Press Freedom report.

This however, is not the first time independent media has been under threat in Azerbaijan, nor the first time journalists have been arrested or interrogated. The most significant pressure against free media began over 10 years ago.

How did we get here?

Azerbaijan’s government has been making life as difficult as possible for journalists and reporters in the country, particularly since 2014.

While the legislator has not passed any so-called “foreign agent laws”, organizations receiving funding from abroad have been condemned for what the government describes as “foreign influence” on its civil society.

One of the first to go was Meydan TV, an independent news source founded out of exile in 2013 by human rights activist Emin Milli. Meydan chose to shut down its office in Baku and relocate to Berlin out of concerns for the safety of its employees after the arrest of investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova in December 2014.

Because Meydan TV continued to report on Azerbaijan from Berlin, its reporters on the ground were never fully safe. The government opened up a criminal case against Meydan TV in 2015 and many of its reporters in the country were banned from traveling abroad.

In 2015, President Ilham Aliyev signed a restrictive media law, ruling that foreign-funded media outlets can be shut down by court ruling. Just days after, the office of US-funded RFE/RL was raided in Baku.

Fast forward to 2022, Aliyev signed a new media bill into law. News outlets are now required to register with the ministry of justice and receive permission before publishing new articles or accessing funds. The ministry, however, will often selectively apply legal provisions and deny media outlets registration.

According to Arzu Geybulla, a regional editor at Global Voices, the ministry of justice’s arbitrary measures are highly unjust.

“Applications are often rejected on silly grounds, citing a misspelling of someone’s last name or that an organization’s goals do not match its description,” Geybulla told Vlast.

By rejecting media outlets applications for registration, the ministry leaves NGOs and media organizations without the legal capacity to receive grants, operate out of a rented workspace, hire staff, or open a bank account.

To continue their work, media outlets often will have to collect funding in unofficial methods, most frequently from abroad or through an unaffiliated party’s bank account.

Out of the 33 arrests documented in HRW’s October 2024 report on Azerbaijan’s media crackdown, 20 individuals were working for an unregistered NGO or an independent news source and were charged with “foreign currency smuggling.”

Foreign currency smuggling remains the most common and easily prosecuted charge, as individuals are compelled to seek alternative ways to access their organization's funding to maintain operations.

In the past two years, the government has targeted every major independent news outlet in the country, most notably Abzas Media, Kanal 13, and Toplum TV. Many of their founders and journalists have been arrested and charged with foreign currency smuggling, including Aziz Orujov, Ulvi Hasanli, and Akif Gurbanov.

At least 25 journalists have been arrested in the past year on bogus smuggling charges and extortion.

“At the current speed of repression, in the space of a few months I fear that there may be hardly any more independent journalism left in Azerbaijan,” Łuczka told Vlast.

However, even when journalists or news outlets choose to operate out of exile, their safety is still at risk, according to Jeanne Cavelier, the head of the Eastern Europe & Central Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders.

“Aliyev’s regime employs foot soldiers to harass [journalists in exile] and doesn’t hesitate even to send killers to silence the most critical voices, as we’ve seen with blogger Mahammad Mirzali, a refugee in France. He’s escaped three murder attempts,” Cavelier told Vlast.

But the crackdown did not stop at local media. Since February international news and NGOs have been kicked out of the country.

Clearing Everything Out

The expulsion of international media outlets and NGOs seems to mark the final stage in Azerbaijan’s systematic purge of independent reporting and foreign-supported civil society organizations.

While the government has long restricted local press and non-governmental organizations, the latest crackdown eliminates nearly all remaining foreign presence in the country's media and development landscape.

BBC, Voice of America, and Bloomberg were all told to cease operations, without much warning or reason.

The pressure on Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today, caught observers off guard. Around 40 Russian staffers were expelled from the country on February 13. Some speculate it was a response to a spat between Russia and Azerbaijan after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight was shot down over Russian airspace and ultimately crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 38 passengers.

Similarly, a wide range of international organizations—including USAID, UNHCR, UNDP, the Red Cross, Transparency International, and Russian House—have been forced to halt their operations in Azerbaijan.

The government has justified their removal by citing national security concerns and accusations of foreign interference. However, many view this as an effort to eliminate independent oversight and external funding sources that support press freedom and civil society initiatives.

Orkhan Mammad, a journalist at Meydan TV, views the closure of the UN and aid organizations through the lens of the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that Azerbaijan took over after another wave of military operations in late 2023..

“The UN branches and the Red Cross were involved in Nagorno-Karabakh, and [Aliyev] was really offended that they were helping Armenians, even calling them terror organizations,” Mammad told Vlast.

By eradicating nearly all independent journalism and NGO activity, the ability to hold the government accountable for human rights abuses and corruption has been severely undercut.

Azerbaijan now faces the prospect of becoming a sealed-off environment, where the only narratives that filter through are those sanctioned by the state.

Andrew Gundal is a contributing writer on Central Asian affairs.