Imprisoned Azerbaijani journalist condemns media crackdown in prison letter

Hafiz Babali

Jailed investigative reporter Hafiz Babali has condemned the total suppression of independent media in Azerbaijan in an open letter written from behind bars to mark the country's National Press Day.

Babali, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence following a police crackdown on the independent news outlet AbzasMedia, said no news organisation independent of the government now remains in the country.

The letter, titled "Swear by the Pen" and published by AbzasMedia, reflects on his 30-year career in journalism and describes his imprisonment as a "disgraceful revenge operation" for exposing corruption.

"On the 151st anniversary of the creation of the national press, there is not a single media outlet in Azerbaijan — newspaper, television, radio, website or online platform — that is independent of the government or its purse," Babali wrote from Prison No. 2.

Babali was among dozens of journalists and media managers arrested in late 2023 as part of a sweeping police action targeting independent newsrooms, including AbzasMedia, Toplum TV, and Meydan TV.

Authorities charged reporters with offences including currency smuggling, tax evasion, money laundering, and illegal entrepreneurship — allegations that international rights groups and European political institutions have widely denounced as politically motivated.

In his letter, Babali argued that legal restrictions on foreign funding and state control over the domestic advertising market were used as a weapon against digital platforms that had built significant public trust by challenging official state narratives.

He added that systemic press repression in Azerbaijan dates back to the unsolved 2005 murder of Elmar Huseynov, editor of the investigative magazine Monitor, which forced independent news outlets into self-censorship and drove many reporters into exile.

Babali also criticised state-sanctioned media bodies in Azerbaijan, including the Press Council and the Union of Journalists, for remaining silent during the prosecutions.

"Those who once called themselves 'captains of the media' do not even realise that they have now become tools of the regime's propaganda," Babali said.

Quoting 18th-century Russian writer Alexander Radishchev, who was imprisoned by Catherine II for his critical work, Babali wrote that the persecution of ideas only serves to root and spread them further.

Maintaining his innocence, Babali said he had never compromised his professional integrity or written on command during his three decades as a reporter.

"Time will put everything in its place, and one day the truth will shine," he added.