2025
2025
2025-09-19
International bodies and human rights organizations have documented and condemned Azerbaijan’s restrictions on human rights, including freedom of speech and the press, as well as violence against media outlets and journalists.
Several UN structures deal with freedom of speech and the press as fundamental human rights. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights plays a central role, appointing independent experts to conduct investigations. These experts regularly publish special reports, drawing attention to restrictions on press freedom and violence against journalists in Azerbaijan.
Back in 2007, independent expert Ambeyi Ligabo expressed concern over restrictions on press freedom in Azerbaijan. In 2014, UN Human Rights Council-appointed special rapporteurs David Kay, Mayna Kay, and Michel Forst raised the arrests of Leila Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, her husband and conflict expert Arif Yunus, Rasul Jafarov, chairman of the Human Rights Club, and Intigam Aliyev, head of the Legal Education Society. These same experts repeatedly condemned the persecution of journalists in Azerbaijan. In 2015, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also voiced concern about violence against human rights defenders, journalists, and activists.
Azerbaijani journalists and activists, in turn, use UN platforms to draw attention to violations of press freedom in the country. For example, in 2024, during the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, a side event was organized at the UN Office to highlight the challenges facing civil society in Azerbaijan and to attract the attention of international organizations.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has also condemned the persecution of journalists and their family members, criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities for targeting the family of Gulnara Akhundova, the regional expert on press freedom at International Media Support (IMS).
The European Union has also regularly addressed and condemned restrictions on press freedom in Azerbaijan.
In 2007, the EU criticized the imprisonment of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the newspapers Realny Azerbaijan and Gundalik Azerbaijan. The EU issued similar statements in February and April 2010.
In 2023, the European External Action Service released a statement expressing concern over the arbitrary arrests of several journalists, noting “the narrowing space for independent journalism and limitations to freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, which run contrary to its international commitments.”
The EU also reacted to the arrest of Mehman Aliyev, director of the Turan news agency, and to the campaign against Abzas Media. In 2025, the EU further noted that among the 154 individuals pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, there were no persons sentenced for exercising their fundamental rights.
The Council of Europe has likewise repeatedly highlighted the problem of lack of press freedom in Azerbaijan. In June 2025, Munir Satouri, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Member of the European Parliament, Nils Ušakovs, Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the South Caucasus, and Dan Barna, the European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Azerbaijan, issued a joint statement condemning the severe repression of journalists, researchers, and activists in Azerbaijan on politically motivated grounds. They reaffirmed the Parliament’s calls for the EU to impose sanctions on responsible Azerbaijani officials under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. The Council of Europe has repeatedly demanded that any future partnership agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan be made conditional on the release of all political prisoners and improvements in the country’s human rights situation.
In December 2024, the Council of Europe adopted a resolution addressing the systematic pressure exerted by Azerbaijani authorities on civil society and independent media since 2023, in connection with COP29. Referring to the arrests of MeydanTV journalists Aynur Ganbarova, Aytaj Ahmadova, Khayala Aghayeva, Natig Javadli, and Asiel Umudova, as well as journalists Ramin Jabrayilzade and Ahmad Mukhtari, the Council strongly condemned the Azerbaijani regime’s ongoing violations of human rights, including freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
Another resolution adopted by the Council of Europe in October 2024 calls for the protection of press and speech freedoms and for ensuring that media work is not restricted. The resolution urges the Azerbaijani government to release journalists from Abzas Media and Toplum TV.
Violence against journalists and restrictions on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan have consistently been a focus for OSCE representatives on media freedom. As early as 2003, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Freimut Duve expressed concern over the continued use of defamation lawsuits against independent newspapers in Azerbaijan. Later that year, Duve and Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer issued a joint statement on the situation of media in Azerbaijan. Highlighting the economic pressure applied against Yeni Musavat—including a €100,000 fine—they called on Azerbaijan to review its defamation legislation and prevent its targeted application. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic has also regularly addressed press freedom in Azerbaijan, sending letters on the issue even to President Ilham Aliyev. She has made similar calls during her visits to Baku.
In 2023, the Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum also condemned violence against several media outlets.
In 2024, the Helsinki Committee addressed the arrests of journalists, expressing solidarity with Azerbaijani journalists and civil society activists.
During an event marking the 150th anniversary of the press in Azerbaijan, the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Fergus Old, noted in his speech that “alarming incidents” concerning media freedom have been recorded in the country in recent years.
Representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora have likewise highlighted restrictions on press freedom in Azerbaijan. Members of Elect Democratic Azerbaijan, an organization founded by Azerbaijanis living in Germany, held a protest in Nuremberg to draw international attention to human rights violations in Azerbaijan, particularly the arrests of journalists and political activists, and the restrictions on freedom of expression and media.
Despite the repeated documentation and strong condemnation of severe restrictions on press freedom over the past two decades by international bodies and organizations, these measures have had little impact on improving the state of press freedom in Azerbaijan. Today, Azerbaijan is the toughest “prison” for freedom of expression and media in the Eastern European and South Caucasus region.