Azerbaijan: Independent journalists under siege

Azerbaijan: Independent journalists under siege

Following the murder of a prominent newspaper editor in March 2005, President Ilham Aliyev stated that “the rights of every journalist and print worker, irrespective of their beliefs, are protected and should be guarded by the state”. In reality, however, journalists continue to face assault, harassment, intimidation and even imprisonment for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The cases described in this document illustrate the range of human rights abuses that journalists in Azerbaijan have suffered in recent years.