Azerbaijan: Journalist and her daughter threatened over trial coverage
On 8 May, freelance journalist Ayten Mammadova was threatened by a knife-wielding man in the elevator of her apartment block. The man demanded that she stop writing about a trial she was covering, and warned that if she didn’t he would ‘deal’ with her daughter.
COVID-19: Azerbaijan should end attacks on free expression and release political prisoners
IRFS calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to end their crackdown on critics under the guise of protecting public safety, and for approximately 120 political prisoners to be released in order to protect their health.
Azerbaijan calls snap general election whilst cracking down on rights
President Aliyev calls snap election for April 2018 but ongoing human rights abuses undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections.
IRFS condemns “politically-motivated” verdict against “Azadliq” executive director Faig Amirli
IRFS calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Azadliq executive director Faig Amirli and to stop the harassment of the newspaper and its staff.
Pressure mounts on Cambodia a year after Kem Ley’s killing
On the one-year anniversary of the death of popular Cambodian activist Kem Ley, civil society organisations from around the world reiterated their call for an independent inquiry.
Azerbaijan crackdown on media becomes dramatically more brutal
“It was immediately after President Ilham Aliyev’s appointment of his wife Mehriban Aliyeva as the first vice-president of Azerbaijan that the authorities launched a large-scale repression against critics,” said IRFS.
Investigate corruption allegations linking PACE and Azerbaijan
The allegations regarding improper conduct of PACE members are serious, credible and risk gravely undermining the credibility of the Assembly, as well as the Council of Europe as a whole. It is essential that these allegations are investigated thoroughly and impartially.
Wave of detentions must end, organisations stress in letter to Belarus president
48 organisations from 24 countries have condemned the continuing wave of detentions and harassment of peaceful protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, anarchists and opposition party members in Belarus.
Azerbaijan: Crackdown on free expression accelerates with upheld conviction of prominent blogger
The undersigned organisations condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s sentencing of Mehman Huseynov, Azerbaijani journalist and chairman of the country’s leading freedom of expression group, Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, to two years in jail on defamation charges. He was taken into custody from the court room, without being allowed to speak in […]
Twelve years on, still no justice for murdered Azerbaijani journalist Elmar Huseynov
Over the past 12 years, the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of journalist Elmar Huseynov’s murder have demonstrated deliberate negligence, effectively helping to conceal the truth behind the crime.
Azerbaijan IFEX member faces prosecution
IRFS Chairman and prominent blogger Mehman Huseynov face a private prosecution, which could lead to imprisonment.
Azerbaijani court jails religious scholar for 20 years and journalist for 10
On 25 January 2017, the Baku Grave Crimes Court held another hearing in the criminal case of Muslim Union Movement chairman Taleh Bagirzade and others.
Abduction and torture of blogger and IFEX member Mehman Huseynov
In recent weeks, Huseynov had produced a series of investigative reports on villas he alleges belong to state ministers and parliamentarians. He is the chairman of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety; the previous chairman, journalist Rasim Aliyev, was beaten to death in August 2015 in Baku.
Bahrain must cease judicial harassment of Faisal Hayyat and other Bahraini journalists
48 human rights organizations have signed a letter asking King Hamad to cease its judicial harassment of human rights defenders and its violation of their right to freedom of expression.