Khadija Ismayilova | Status: Conditional Release | Azerbaijan
Khadija Ismayilova is an award-winning freelance reporter who has worked for various Azeri-, Russian-, and English-language news outlets. More
Ruling Against Azerbaijani Journalist Part of “Relentless Campaign of Harassment”
“This blatantly politicized ruling by the supreme court provides spurious legal justification for the Aliyev government’s relentless campaign of harassment against Khadija Ismayilova.” More
Azerbaijan: Imprisoned writer Rashad Ramazanov ends hunger strike
Writer and blogger Rashad Ramazanov is on hunger strike and in poor health. He is one of several Azerbaijani prisoners, activists, and opposition figures who have been on hunger… More
Akram Aylisli | Status: On Trial | Azerbaijan
Since the publication of his novella, Stone Dreams, in 2012, writer Akram Aylisli has been subject to an officially-sanctioned harassment campaign. On March 30, 2016, on More
New Charges Against Azerbaijani Blogger Mehman Huseynov, Now on Hunger Strike, A Cruel Punishment for Investigative Journalism
"The escalation of legal harassment against Mehman Huseynov—over the holiday period, and just months before his release—is an inhumane step that perfectly embodies the calculated crackdown against dissenting voices… More
Half-Free: How “Conditional Release” Continues to Limit Free Expression for Writers at Risk
The goals of incarceration and limited release are one in the same: to suppress free expression and to enforce silence. More
AZERBAIJAN: Kidnapped journalist must be released immediately
PEN condemns the cross-border abduction and detention of Azeri investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who vanished from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on May 29, 2017, and reappeared the following day in… More
AZERBAIJAN: Time for Justice for Ilgar Mammadov
Joint Statement The Council of Europe’s Legitimacy at Stake over Azerbaijan’s Persistent Non-compliance with European Court Judgment Today three years have passed since the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered… More
Azerbaijan: Rights Groups Demand the Release of Journalist Mehman Huseynov
Joint Statement As World Press Freedom Day is celebrated across the globe on May 3, we, the undersigned organizations, cannot forget the untenable price journalists pay for government criticism in… More
AZERBAIJAN: Health concern for imprisoned writer Rashad Ramazanov
PEN is deeply concerned for the health of writer and blogger Rashad Ramazanov, who is serving a nine-year sentence for his anti-government writings. His family, who recently visited him… More