In its official statement released on 6 December 2024, Meydan TV disclosed the sudden detention of seven collaborators—including staff reporters and freelancers. Homes were searched, personal belongings seized, and equipment confiscated. The detainees, charged with “smuggling foreign currency,” included Ramin Jabrayilzade (Deko), Aytaj Ahmadova (Tapdig), Aynur Ganbarova (Elgunesh), Natig Javadli, Khayala Aghayeva, Aysel Umudova, and Ulvi Tahirov. Meydan TV rejected the accusations as “illegal” and groundless, describing the arrests as a continuation of longstanding persecution, including surveillance, travel bans, Pegasus spyware attacks, and prolonged cyber censorship.
On 8 December, the Khatai District Court ordered four-month pretrial detention for the detained Meydan TV journalists. In adjacent developments, a freelance photojournalist, Ahmed Mukhtar, was briefly held on hooliganism charges and fined 20 days. Since then, their pretrial detention periods have been extened, most recently in June 2025.
In February 2025, the crackdown expanded. Several other freelance journalists inlcuding Nurlan Gahramanli (“Nurlan Libre”), Shamshad Agha, editor of Argument.az and collaborator with Meydan TV, and Fatima Mövlamli, another Meydan TV freelance journalist, were arrested on similar accusations.
In May, Ulviyya Ali, a VOA correspondent (not Meydan TV staff but targeted in the same campaign), was arrested in a home raid and accused of currency smuggling. She became the 11th journalist arrested in relation to the “Meydan TV case”.
Below are the names of journalists targeted thus far:
Aynur Elgunash
Aysel Umudova
Aytaj Ahmadova
Fatima Movlamli
Khayala Aghayeva
Natig Javadli
Nurlan Libre
Ramin Jabrailzada
Shamshad Aghayev
Ulvi Tahirov
Ulviyya Ali