BAKU (A.W.)—Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has approved a new law, which makes it easier for his government to shut down media outlets, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service. The law particularly targets mass media outlets that receive foreign funding.
The original legislation was accepted by Azerbaijan’s Parliament in mid-December 2014, Aliyev signed and approved the law on Feb. 3. With these new rules, any media service that is financed by sources abroad or is found guilty of defamation twice in one year can be forced to close down its operations by Azerbaijani courts.
Following the parliament’s approval of the legislation, Azerbaijani authorities raided the U.S.-funded RFE/RL Baku bureau. This was an “apparent attempt to silence one of the country’s last independent media outlets,” according to the station. At the time, prosecutors called the raids “a part of an ongoing investigation into RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service as a foreign-funded entity.”
While the Aliyev regime has continuously and brutally cracked down on many facets of civil society over the years, independent media has been particularly targeted. Last September, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the persecution of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and called for the withdrawal of legislation restricting the operations of an independent civil society, as well as the cessation of repression and intimidation of NGOs, independent media, opposition forces, human rights defenders, and youth and social network activists.
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