CPJ: Azerbaijan has arrested the 21st journalist in 15 months amid a growing crackdown against media

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the arrest of Shamshad Agha, chief editor of the independent news site Arqument.az, and calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release him and other jailed journalists.

“Shamshad Agha’s arrest underscores a grim intent by Azerbaijani authorities to silence and further restrict the country’s small and embattled independent media community,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said. “Azerbaijan’s government should immediately reverse its unprecedented media crackdown and release Agha along with all other unjustly jailed journalists.”

Police in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, detained Agha on the night of Feb. 4 and searched his home, confiscating his computer, an old cell phone, his brother’s phone, and other data storage and computer equipment, according to news reports.

Agha’s lawyer Shahla Humbatova told media that Agha was arrested as a suspect in a criminal case against Germany-based outlet Meydan TV, with which Agha also collaborates. Six Meydan TV journalists were detained on currency smuggling charges in December.

Those arrested are among at least 19 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s largest remaining independent media charged since late 2023 over alleged receipt of Western donor funding, amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West. Several other journalists have been jailed on separate charges.

CPJ’s annual prison census found that Azerbaijan was among the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in 2024.