The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded that Azerbaijan provide immediate medical treatment to jailed independent journalist Aytaj Tapdig, warning that her health is deteriorating behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US-based press freedom watchdog said Tapdig, who is being held under the high-profile Meydan TV prosecution, has been denied medical examinations despite suffering from severe breathing difficulties exacerbated by harsh prison conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a court hearing on 4 July, her lawyer Cavad Cavadov said prison authorities had failed to respond to a formal request for medical intervention sent on 19 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tapdig told the court she had been forced to use 80 boxes of nasal spray to breathe during her 20 months in detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about reports that imprisoned Meydan TV journalist Aytaj Tapdig has been denied medical examination and treatment,” the CPJ said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The watchdog added that Azerbaijani authorities must ensure Tapdig and other jailed media workers receive adequate medical care, calling for the immediate release of all 24 journalists currently detained in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
International human rights organisation Freedom Now also shared the statement, expressing its support for the journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tapdig, who also goes by the surname Ahmadova, was arrested on 6 December 2024 alongside six other Meydan TV employees and civil society activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group was initially charged with smuggling, but prosecutors upgraded the charges in August last year to include seven separate criminal counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several other independent journalists and contributors to the outlet were arrested in subsequent months, including Shamshad Aghayev, Nurlan Libre, Fatima Movlamli, Ulviyya Ali, and Ahmad Mukhtar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those detained deny the charges, describing them as politically motivated efforts by the Azerbaijani government to silence independent media and critical voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded that Azerbaijan provide immediate medical treatment to jailed independent journalist Aytaj Tapdig, warning that her health is deteriorating behind bars. The US-based press freedom watchdog said Tapdig, who is being held under the high-profile Meydan TV prosecution, has been denied medical examinations despite suffering from severe breathing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-31694","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\/31694","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=31694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31696,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31694\/revisions\/31696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}