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AZERBAIJAN: Anti-corruption journalists detained for four months

Azerbaijani anti-corruption journalists Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vagifgizi detained for 4 months

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli and chief editor Sevinj Vagifgizi and to disclose the whereabouts of Hasanli’s assistant, Mahammad Kekalov, who has been missing since Monday.

A district court in the capital of Baku on Tuesday ordered that Hasanli and Vagifgizi remain in custody for four months on charges of conspiring to bring money into the country unlawfully, Abzas Media reported. If found guilty, they face up to eight years in prison under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s criminal code.

Individuals in plainclothes who did not identify themselves took Kekalov from his home in Baku on Monday along with his laptop and cell phone, according to news reports and a source familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. As of Tuesday evening, Kekalov’s whereabouts remained unknown.

“The remand terms handed to Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vagifgizi only serve to underline authorities’ real goal, which is to silence Abzas Media’s bold anti-corruption reporting,” said CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, in New York. “Azerbaijani authorities should release Vagifgizi and Hasanli immediately, provide information on Mahammad Kekalov’s whereabouts, and allow Abzas Media to continue its vital public interest reporting.”

Police arrested Hasanli on Monday, November 20, raided his apartment, and searched the Baku office of independent investigative website Abzas Media, where they said they found 40,000 Euros (US$43,770). Officers took a computer, cell phone, iWatch, and hard disk from the apartment and confiscated a microphone and hard disk from the office, Zibeyda Sadygova, the journalist’s lawyer, told CPJ.

Police arrested Vagifgizi at Baku airport at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday as she returned from a work trip abroad and searched her home.

Hasanli and Vagifgizi have denied the charges, calling them retaliation for Abzas Media’s investigations into alleged corruption by relatives of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and state officials. Hasanli said he believes police planted the money in order to fabricate a case, according to a video posted by Abzas Media.

Abzas Media is one of a handful of independent outlets that remain in the country following a series of raids, arrests, and criminal investigations against independent media and press freedom groups since 2014.

In 2021, Vagifgizi was one of several Azerbaijani journalists whose phones were found to be compromised by Pegasus, spyware produced by the Israeli company NSO Group. Hasanli’s name was also on a leaked list of individuals targeted with Pegasus, according to the global investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

CPJ’s emails to the Baku Police Department and the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not receive any replies.

Photo credits: YouTube/AzadliqRadiosu

ALGERIA: New prison sentence for journalist Mustapha Bendjama

New prison sentence for Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama

CPJ (08.11.2023) – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the additional six-month prison sentence issued to Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama on Tuesday, November 7.

“Imposing a new prison sentence on journalist Mustapha Bendjama just when he was due to be released shows how determined the Algerian government is to keep independent journalists behind bars,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Bendjama, drop all charges against him, and ensure that journalists in the country can work freely without fear of imprisonment.”

On November 7, a court in the eastern city of Constantine sentenced Bendjama, editor-in-chief of local independent news website Le Provincial, to six months in prison for “committing an illegal immigration crime” for allegedly helping French Algerian journalist Amira Bouraoui flee to France earlier this year, according to news reports. Bouraoui, who is banned from traveling outside of Algeria, denied that Bendjama had any connection to her traveling out of the country.

Bendjama has been in custody since police arrested him on February 8 from his office in Annaba, in northeast Algeria. On August 29, a court sentenced him to two years in prison on charges of receiving foreign funding to commit acts against public order and publishing classified information in a separate case.

On October 26, a Constantine court reduced Bendjama’s two-year sentence to 20 months – eight months in prison and 12 months suspended, meaning he would be released immediately, according to news reports. Instead, Bendjama was held in custody and convicted again on November 7.

CPJ emailed the Algerian Ministry of Interior for comment but did not receive any response.

Photo courtesy of Mustapha Bendjama

RUSSIA: Supreme Court upholds 22-year prison term for journalist Safronov

Russia’s Supreme Court upholds 22-year prison sentence for journalist Ivan Safronov

CPJ (02.08.2023) – In response to the Russian Supreme Court decision on Wednesday to uphold the 22-year prison sentence of journalist Ivan Safronov, who was convicted of treason last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation:

“The Russian Supreme Court’s refusal to overturn Ivan Safronov’s 22-year prison sentence, while hardly surprising, is nonetheless appalling,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities should drop all charges against Safronov, release him immediately, and stop jailing journalists in connection to their work.”

Authorities accused Safronov, who was arrested in July 2020, of sharing classified information with Czech intelligence. Media reported that the information he had allegedly shared was publicly available, and that his prosecution stemmed from his 2019 reporting on Russia’s sale of fighter jets to Egypt. Safronov, a former correspondent for newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, has denied the charges. In December 2022, a Moscow court upheld his sentence on appeal. Safronov has now exhausted all possibilities to contest his sentence in Russia, media reported.

In February 2023, he was transferred to a maximum-security prison in Siberia to serve his sentence, media reported. Safronov’s fiancé Ksenia Mironova told CPJ in an email that today’s Supreme Court ruling was expected, “knowing the Russian judiciary.” Russia held at least 19 journalists in prison when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census on December 1, 2022.

Photo credits: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

RUSSIA bans exiled media outlet Dozhd TV as ‘undesirable’

Russia bans exiled outlet Dozhd TV as ‘undesirable’

CPJ (26.07.2023) – Russian authorities should stop attempting to silence the exiled broadcaster Dozhd TV (TV Rain) and cease using the country’s “undesirable organization” law to intimidate independent media and their audiences, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, July 25, the Russian general prosecutor’s office outlawed SIA TV Rain and TVR Studios BV, the outlet’s branches in Latvia and the Netherlands respectively, by declaring them “undesirable” organizations, according to media reports, Dozhd TV reports, and a statement by the prosecutor’s office.

Organizations that receive the undesirable classification are banned from operating in Russia, and anyone who participates in them or works to organize their activities faces up to six years in prison and administrative fines. The designation also makes it a crime to distribute the outlet’s content or donate to it from inside or outside Russia.

“By banning Dozhd TV as ‘undesirable,’ Russian authorities are showing that their battle against news outlets offering independent information is by no means over,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should immediately overhaul the legislation on ‘undesirable organizations’ instead of using it to stifle free reporting.”

In August 2021, Russia’s justice ministry labeled Dozhd TV a “foreign agent,” compelling the outlet to submit regular detailed reports on its activities and expenses and to flag that status on its content. The ministry has since regularly added Dozhd TV journalists to its foreign agent list.

Dozhd TV suspended operations in Russia in March 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, subsequent criminalization of “false information” about the Russian military, and the blocking of its website by state media regulator Roskomnadzor.

The outlet relocated to Latvia, but Latvia’s media regulator canceled its broadcasting permit in December 2022, prompting Dozhd TV to move its editorial center to the Netherlands.

The Russian prosecutor’s office accused SIA TV Rain and TVR Studios BV of distributing materials from “undesirable,” “extremist,” and “terrorist organizations,” as well as “foreign agents” such as the independent news website Meduza.

The office also said the companies “discredit” Russian government bodies and law enforcement agencies, “disseminate false information” about the war in Ukraine, and support foreign agents.

Dozhd TV editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko said that the outlet had suspended crowdfunding in Russia, canceled subscriptions from Russian citizens, and asked them not to share its content within the country for their own safety.

“We’ve been labeled ‘undesirable in Russia,’ but we’re not: 13 million viewers in Russia last month confirm it,” he said in a statement.

In an interview with Meduza, Dzyadko called the prosecutor’s office decision “completely illegal” but “expected” and said that Dozhd TV will continue its work and look for other ways to secure funding. Dzyadko told CPJ via messaging app that an “important” part of Dozhd TV’s revenue came from donations from Russia.

Since 2021, Russian authorities have labeled dozens of organizations “undesirable,” including Meduza, Novaya Gazeta Europe, as well as investigative outlets iStories, The Insider, Bellingcat, and Proekt.

CPJ’s call to the Russian general prosecutor’s office was not answered.

Photo credits: Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina

SYRIA: Information Minister revokes accreditation of two BBC journalists

Syria revokes accreditation of two BBC journalists

Syria’s Ministry of Information must reverse its decision to revoke the accreditation of two BBC journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

CPJ (10.07.2023) – On July 8, the ministry said it had canceled the accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC over “false” and “politicized” reporting, according to a statement by the ministry, the BBC, and multiple media reports. Those sources did not identify the journalists by name.

The ministry’s statement said one journalist worked as a radio correspondent, and the other as a correspondent and camera operator. It did not specify what reporting led to the revocation, but said the BBC had been “warned more than once” about “misleading reports relying on statements and testimonies from terrorist and anti-Syrian authorities.”

“The Syrian government has long restricted the media, and the recent revocation of two BBC reporters’ accreditation shows that the government remains intent on stifling independent voices,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities should reverse this decision and allow all members of the press to work freely and without fear of reprisal.”

In late June, the BBC published an investigative report linking the trade of an amphetamine drug with President Bashar al-Assad’s family and the Syrian Armed Forces. Syria, which has been roiled by civil war since 2011, has previously denied playing a role in the amphetamine trade.

In an email to CPJ, the BBC said that the outlet would “continue to provide impartial news and information to our audiences across the Arabic-speaking world.”

CPJ emailed the Syrian Ministry of Information for comment but did not receive any response.

At least five journalists were imprisoned in Syria at the time of CPJ’s 2022 prison census.

Photo credits: Reuters/Hollie Adams

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