Silencing Voices: Journalist Ulviyya Ali Targeted with Harassment in Prison

Ulviyya Ali

The crackdown on media that is not state-controlled in Azerbaijan has reached a worrying new level. It now involves using artificial intelligence and direct threats against the relatives of journalists who are already in jail. Ulviyya Ali (Guliyeva), a journalist now held in Baku Pre-trial Detention Center No. 1 because of her work with Meydan TV, says that prison officials have threatened her because of AI-generated content appearing on social media.

The issue began when a support page for Ali shared AI-created audio clips that sounded like her voice. In these clips, the voice described the violence she has experienced in detention and the legal steps she has taken during her trial. While her supporters are using this technology to get around the silence of imprisonment, the detention center's management is not happy.

Ali’s family reports that the head of the detention center has met with her many times. He demanded that she remove the recordings. Even though the authorities know the voices are AI-generated, the warden said that other people do not understand this. He also accused Ali’s fiancé of making the videos. The pressure increased to a direct threat: Ali was told that if the recordings were not removed, her fiancé would be arrested and brought to the detention center.

This harassment is not an isolated incident. Ali is one of 12 people arrested between December 2024 and August 2025 in relation to the Meydan TV investigation. They were first charged with smuggling as part of a conspiracy, but the charges were made even more serious in late 2025. This case fits within a wider pattern in Azerbaijan. Since late 2023, over 30 journalists and activists have been detained under similar smuggling claims, including important people from Abzas Media and Toplum TV.

The environment inside the detention center is becoming harder for all journalists involved. Recently, other detainees in the Meydan TV case, including Aytac Tapdig, Aysel Umudova, and Khayala Aghayeva, began to protest the sudden cancellation of open meetings with their families. They were told that they would no longer be able to meet face-to-face. Instead, they would have to talk through glass partitions using telephones. The journalists have refused to participate in these restricted meetings, calling the change a form of psychological torture. They believe it is retaliation for what they said during court.

Even after representatives from the Ombudsman's Office visited to hear complaints of violence and pressure, the situation is still bad. The detained journalists say that they are innocent of all criminal charges. They believe that their imprisonment is a political move to punish them for exposing government corruption and misconduct. The Azerbaijani government says that no one is arrested for their job, but the coordinated pressure on journalists like Ulviyya Ali and the threats against their families suggest a deliberate effort to stop independent reporting.