{"id":30875,"date":"2025-06-26T06:35:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T06:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/?p=30875"},"modified":"2025-06-26T06:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T06:35:54","slug":"azerbaijan-extends-detention-of-meydan-tv-journalists-amidst-ongoing-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/news-feed\/azerbaijan-extends-detention-of-meydan-tv-journalists-amidst-ongoing-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan Extends Detention of Meydan TV Journalists Amidst Ongoing Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>BAKU, AZERBAIJAN<\/strong> \u2013 In a move that has drawn strong protests from legal counsel and human rights advocates, the Xatai District Court in Azerbaijan has once again extended the pre-trial detention of numerous journalists and civil society members associated with the independent online television channel Meydan TV. The extensions, primarily for another three months, keep many of them in custody until at least October 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court proceedings on June 24 saw prosecutors motion for the extensions, which were subsequently granted. Among those whose detention was prolonged are Meydan TV journalists <strong>Ramin Deko (Jabrayilzada), Aysel Umudova, Khayala Aghayeva, Natig Javadli<\/strong>, along with <strong>Shamshad Agha (Aghayev)<\/strong>, editor-in-chief of &#8220;argument.az&#8221; and a Meydan TV collaborator. Also affected are journalists <strong>Fatima Movlamli, Ulviyya Ali (Guliyeva)<\/strong>, and civil society member <strong>Ulvi Tahirov<\/strong>. Separately, the detentions of <strong>Aynur Elgunesh (Ganbarova)<\/strong> and <strong>Nurlan Libre (Gahramanli)<\/strong> were also extended by three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawyers for the accused vehemently protested the court&#8217;s decisions, announcing plans to file appeals. They argued that their clients have committed no crime and that the smuggling charges leveled against them lack convincing evidence. Journalist Aynur Elgunesh, speaking in court, sharply criticized the judiciary, stating that the &#8220;court should not act as a notary, confirming orders sent from above.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arrests are part of an ongoing crackdown that began in December 2023. On December 6, Meydan TV&#8217;s Azerbaijan representative office head Aynur Elgunesh, along with journalists Ramin Jabrayilzada (Deko), Aysel Umudova, Aytaj Ahmadova (Tapdig), Khayala Aghayeva, and Natig Javadli, were initially detained. They were charged under Article 206.3.2 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to smuggling committed by a group of individuals in prior collusion. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated these arrests were part of a smuggling investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also arrested on December 6 was Ulvi Tahirov, deputy director of the Baku School of Journalism, who faces the same charges despite having no affiliation with Meydan TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arrests continued into 2025: Shamshad Aghayev was detained on February 5, Nurlan Gahramanli (Libre) on February 20, Fatima Movlamli on February 28, and most recently, Ulviyya Guliyeva (Ali) on May 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All detained journalists deny the charges, asserting that the accusations of smuggling are baseless and fabricated, and that they are being punished solely for their professional, critical journalistic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The &#8220;Meydan TV case&#8221; is part of a broader trend in Azerbaijan. Since November 2023, more than 30 journalists and public activists have been arrested, primarily on smuggling charges. These individuals consistently reject the allegations, linking them to their professional work and alleged political motives. Charges against many have been escalated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just last week, seven journalists implicated in the &#8220;AbzasMedia case,&#8221; another prominent media outlet, received lengthy prison sentences ranging from 7 years and 6 months to 9 years. This includes Farid Mehralizade, a journalist with Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, who was sentenced to 9 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While local human rights organizations report over 370 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, government officials routinely deny that anyone is arrested due to their professional activities or political beliefs, claiming individuals are held accountable only for criminal acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, international human rights organizations and Western officials have consistently called on the Azerbaijani government to release those unjustly detained. Azerbaijan currently ranks among the top five countries in Europe for the number of journalists in prison, alongside Russia (38), Belarus (30), Ukraine (28), and Turkey (20), underscoring persistent concerns about media freedom and human rights in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BAKU, AZERBAIJAN \u2013 In a move that has drawn strong protests from legal counsel and human rights advocates, the Xatai District Court in Azerbaijan has once again extended the pre-trial detention of numerous journalists and civil society members associated with the independent online television channel Meydan TV. The extensions, primarily for another three months, keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-30875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","tag-editor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30877,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30875\/revisions\/30877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}