New York, May 9, 2025— After 18 months, Azerbaijan’s vast media crackdown shows no signs of abating, as police arrested two independent journalists, Ulviyya Ali and Ahmad Mammadli, on the night of May 6-7.
The arrests bring the total number of journalists jailed in Azerbaijan since late 2023 to at least 25, with several others facing major criminal charges. Most are from some of Azerbaijan’s last remaining independent outlets and have been detained over alleged funding from Western donors amid a decline in relations with the West and surge in Azerbaijani authoritarianism following the country’s military recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023.
“The latest arrests of journalists Ulviyya Ali and Ahmad Mammadli underline how intent Azerbaijani authorities are on wiping out any trace of independent reporting,” said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Senior Researcher Anna Brakha. “Azerbaijani authorities should release Ali and Mammadli and swiftly investigate disturbing allegations of police mistreatment against them.”
Exiled media advocate Emin Huseynov told CPJ that after the crackdown forced the exile of outlets like Toplum TV and Abzas Media and the closure of the Turan news agency, journalists like Ali and Mammadli have become the only sources of independent in-country reporting.
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Police arrested Ali, whose legal name is Ulviyya Guliyeva, as part of a criminal case against independent Germany-based outlet Meydan TV, nine of whose journalists have previously been jailed on allegations of bringing Western funding into the country illegally.
Ali, considered one of the most prominent independent journalists continuing to work in Azerbaijan amid the crackdown, worked as a freelance reporter for U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) prior to Azerbaijan’s cancellation of the broadcaster’s accreditation in February and the Trump administration’s funding cuts, after which she continued publishing on her personal social media accounts.
Huseynov told CPJ that journalists affiliated with international media were usually afforded a certain measure of protection in Azerbaijan, but that VOA’s effective closure “100% made Ulviyya more vulnerable” to arrest.
Law enforcement officers in the capital, Baku, arrested Ali overnight on May 6-7 and searched her apartment, where they claimed to find more than 6000 euros (US$6800). Gulnara Mehdiyeva, a friend of Ali’s, told CPJ that police severely damaged the journalist’s apartment and repeatedly struck Ali on the head, pulled her by the hair, and threatened to sexually assault her to force her to give them her phone password.
Later on May 7, a court ordered Ali to be held in pretrial detention for two months on currency smuggling charges, punishable by up to eight years in prison.
In a Facebook post written in anticipation of her arrest and posted by colleagues on May 7, Ali denied any affiliation with Meydan TV or bringing any funds into the country illegally, writing, “If you are reading this post, it means that I have been defamed and illegally arrested for my journalistic activity.” Ali was previously interrogated in connection with the Meydan TV case in January and banned from travel.
On the evening of May 6, Baku police arrested Mammadli, founder of independent social media-based outlet Yoldash Media, over an alleged stabbing, according to pro-government media reports.
Exile-based independent journalist Elmaddin Shamilzade told CPJ that at least two plainclothes police officers shared a taxi with Mammadli and began beating him. They then took him to an unmarked car, beat him, and shocked him with an unknown weapon when he refused to provide his phone’s password, Shamilzade said.
On May 8, a court ordered Mammadli to be held in pretrial detention for four months on charges of hooliganism and causing serious bodily harm, subject to a prison term of up to 11 years. He has denied the charges and linked them to his journalism.
Shamilzade told CPJ that the charges were false and that Mammadli, a former activist who recently switched to journalism, had been arrested as “one of the few individuals left in Azerbaijan with the audacity to cover sensitive topics,” such as political trials.
CPJ’s email requesting comment to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply.
Committee to Protect Journalists- ECA