Nine women journalists in Azerbaijan are marking International Women’s Day behind bars or under house arrest amid the government’s relentless crackdown on critics.
Women journalists and civic activists who speak truth to power face unique risks in Azerbaijan’s patriarchal society. The authorities have a long record of subjecting them to gender-based smear campaigns and trolling in an effort to intimidate and discredit them. As an Azerbaijani woman journalist living in involuntary exile myself, the steep price of criticizing the government – including the gender-based threats – is all too familiar.
But the government’s approach to political persecution is otherwise perversely nondiscriminatory. Its wider, vicious crackdown has targeted an ever-rising number of critics and dissenting voices. Since 2023, authorities have arrested dozens of human rights defenders, journalists, and independent civic activists on politically motivated, bogus criminal charges.
Freelance reporter Fatima Movlamli was arrested just last week, on February 28, and held in pretrial detention. The spurious money laundering charges against her are part of a broader investigation against Meydan TV, an independent news outlet she collaborated with.
“I am a journalist, and I have done nothing criminal,” Movlamli wrote in a personal note following her arrest.
Movlamli is one of 20 journalists now facing trumped-up money laundering charges. They were rounded up over the course of 13 months and are from five online media outlets, Abzas Media, Meydan TV, Toplum TV, Kanal 13, and Kanal 11. Many face additional, spurious accusations of tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship.
There are eight other women journalists in custody: Sevinj Vagifgizi, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova from Abzas Media; Aynur Elgunash, Aytaj Ahmadova, Aysel Umudova, and Khayala Aghayeva from Meydan TV; and Shahnaz Beylerqizi from Toplum TV.
On February 26, authorities transferred Beylerqizi to house arrest due to a deteriorating health condition, but she faces a prison sentence if convicted.
No journalist should pay for their work with their freedom. Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop the bogus charges and free all jailed journalists and other activists, allowing them to do their work without government interference.
