News

June 24, editor of an online news platform arqument.az Shamshad Agha reports that the platform’s Facebook page was hacked.  The damage was significant Agha told AIW. Around 11,000 page likes were deleted as well as some 12,000 followers. All of the platform’s posts until March were also removed.  The admins were able to restore access […]

June 20, the Cabinet of Ministers rolled out a new requirement for journalists and mass media resources during the two weeks of strict quarantine regime effective between June 21 and July 5. According to the new regulation, journalists must register with an e-permission platform icaze.e-gov.az  The requirement concerns freelance and full-time journalists. Critics say the new […]

On June 18, a popular online news platform, Meydan TV was targeted online. Its social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram were subject to a digital attack. According to Meydan TV, the platform lost two years of content on its Azerbaijani language Facebook page while on Instagram it lost at least two months of posts.  […]

Four months ago, the Plenum of the Supreme Court in Azerbaijan annulled previous court decisions issued by the Courts of Appeal and Cassation regarding five news websites that were blocked in 2017. On June 5, the Plenum sent the cases back to the Baku Court of Appeal for reconsideration. The five media platforms include Meydan […]

A resident of a village in Goychay administrative district, Ahliman Aliyev was sentenced to 15 days in administrative detention over his social media posts. In an interview with Meydan TV, Aliyev said he was arrested for criticizing the head of the administrative district Mehdi Salimzade online.  While in detention, he was beaten and humiliated. After […]

June 22, Baku Court of Appeals rejected the TikToker’s appeal for release. In his defense, Elshan Teymurov said the main reason for his arrest – the circulated video – was made in 2019 and that he already spent 15 days in administrative detention at the time. Teymurov also added that he removed the video after […]

On May 22, a high school teacher Jalil Zabidov was arrested and sentenced to five months in prison on charges of hooliganism according to reports. Zabidov was also a member of D18, an opposition movement. According to his family members, and members of the D18 movement, Zabidov often shared stories and news of corruption in […]

Between May 13 through 17, four different video clips from private Zoom calls were leaked online. The videos were taken from calls that took place between senior members of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), an alliance representing several opposition parties in Azerbaijan.  The members of the council called the leak a cybercrime committed […]

For almost a month now, political activist, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev has been the target of multiple forms of online attacks. In an interview with AIW, Hajiyev said, from being impersonated online and fake social media accounts in his name, calling for protests, to on-going attempts to break into his social media accounts, it is a comprehensive […]

[Update] On June 17, Irshadov was reportedly detained over a social media post. According to Meydan TV, the blogger was detained for criticizing a new quarantine rule restricting the reopening of some mosques that was introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers. Irshadov was released after a preventative discussion, reported Meydan TV. May 18, activist Elvin Irshadov, […]