COP29: RSF demands immediate release of imprisoned journalists and protection of environmental journalism in Azerbaijan

The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference opens in Baku, Azerbaijan, a resource-rich country notorious for its violent crackdown on free and independent press. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging the international community to pressure Azerbaijan to release imprisoned journalists and end the severe violations of their rights.

Access restrictions, physical violence, arrests: in Azerbaijan, a petro-state that derives over 90% of its revenue from oil and gas exports, journalists covering sensitive issues such as the environment are working in a highly dangerous environment. Over the past year, authorities have arrested around fifteen journalists due to their work. Among the thirteen media professionals currently in detention, Nargiz Absalamova was investigating environmental issues.

“Setting an example in the protection of journalism, particularly environmental journalism, should be a prerequisite for hosting a UN climate conference. How can we accept that a petro-state that imprisons independent journalists is the host of negotiations that will determine the future of global climate? RSF calls on the international community to demand that Azerbaijani authorities release the imprisoned journalists, end the flagrant violations of press freedom, and commit to protecting independent journalism."

Jeanne Cavelier - Head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia office

Covering the disastrous environmental, health, and climate consequences of oil and mining extraction in Azerbaijan is particularly difficult and dangerous for journalists. Detained since November 30, 2023, on false charges of “foreign currency smuggling,” Nargiz Absalamova was working for Abzas Media, one of the few remaining independent media outlets in the country. In June 2023, she reported on protests by residents of Söyüdlü, a village in western Azerbaijan affected by toxic waste from an open-pit gold mine. They were protesting against a new artificial lake project intended to collect cyanide- and arsenic-contaminated runoff from mining operations. Police brutally dispersed the peaceful crowd and violently expelled three journalists, including Nargiz Absalamova. Her colleague Elmaddin Shamilzade was later harassed, tortured, and threatened with sexual violence in an attempt to force him to reveal his phone’s access code and delete photos from the protest.

To date, Absalamova, along with four colleagues from Abzas Media and eight other independent journalists, including from Toplum TV, are enduring mistreatment or humiliating detention conditions in prison, as regularly reported by Abzas Media’s editor-in-chief, Sevinj Vagifgizi, her fellow detainee at the Kurdakhani detention center. Absalamova, facing up to 12 years in prison, is being denied visits from her family.

According to a recent global analysis published by RSF, two-thirds of the world’s oil is extracted in countries where press freedom is severely threatened. A textbook case of an extractive state where environmental journalism is harshly repressed, Azerbaijan ranks among the worst countries for press freedom, coming in at 164th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2024 World Press Freedom Index.