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The Committee to Project Journalists called on the Azerbaijani government to release over a dozen jailed journalists and reform the country’s deeply restrictive media laws in a letter signed by 25 organizations ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference on November 11-22, 2024.

Azerbaijani authorities have charged 13 journalists over the past year for alleged violations of funding rules in an extensive crackdown on independent media outlets and civil society, amid declining relations between Azerbaijan and the West

CPJ and partners also urged member states of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the conference’s organizing body, to ensure all journalists can freely participate and cover conference developments without obstruction. 

Read the full statement here.


This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Citations

[1] Azerbaijan Archives - Committee to Protect Journalists ➤ https://cpj.org/europe/azerbaijan/[2] Azerbaijan extends pretrial detentions of journalists facing currency smuggling charges - Committee to Protect Journalists ➤ https://cpj.org/2024/07/azerbaijan-extends-pretrial-detentions-of-journalists-facing-currency-smuggling-charges/[3] Azerbaijani authorities charge Kanal 13 journalists Aziz Orujov and Shamo Eminov over alleged foreign donor money, order channel blocked - Committee to Protect Journalists ➤ https://cpj.org/2024/01/azerbaijani-authorities-charge-kanal-13-journalists-aziz-orujov-and-shamo-eminov-over-alleged-foreign-donor-money-order-channel-blocked/[4] Azerbaijani police raid Toplum TV, detain journalists over alleged currency smuggling - Committee to Protect Journalists ➤ https://cpj.org/2024/03/azerbaijani-police-raid-toplum-tv-detain-journalists-over-alleged-currency-smuggling/[5] Azerbaijani authorities charge 6 Abzas Media journalists with 7 new offenses - Committee to Protect Journalists ➤ https://cpj.org/2024/08/azerbaijani-authorities-charge-6-abzas-media-journalists-with-7-new-offenses/[6]https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/azerbaijan-arrests-fourth-independent-journalist-week-2023-11-28/#:~:text=Azerbaijan's%20relations%20with%20some%20Western,the%20territory's%20ethnic%20Armenian%20population.[7]https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijani-president-signals-further-divergence-from-west-in-inauguration-speech[8] Azerbaijan Excluded from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ➤ https://eclj.org/geopolitics/pace/azerbaijan-excluded-from-the-parliamentary-assembly-of-the-council-of-europe[9]https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Demand-Rights-At-COP-Statement.pdf