Trial of 12 journalists begins in Azerbaijan’s case against Meydan TV

New York, December 12, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Azerbaijan to drop all charges and release 12 journalists as the trial against Germany-based Meydan TV began Friday in the capital, Baku.

“The sorry sight of 11 journalists and a respected journalism teacher on trial in the case against award-winning Meydan TV only underscores the vast and unjustified character of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on the independent press,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release all detainees in the Meydan TV case, along with all other media workers swept up in these appalling reprisals.”

If convicted, the journalists face up to 12 years in prison on a raft of financial crime charges linked to alleged receipt of Western donor funding, including currency smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion.

On trial in the case:

Meydan TV journalists Natig Javadli, Khayala Aghayeva, Aytaj Tapdig, Aynur Elgunesh, Aysel Umudova, and Ramin Jabrayilzade, arrested in December 2024 along with Ulvi Tahirov, deputy director of Baku Journalism School.

Arqument.az chief editor Shamshad Agha, who works with Meydan TV, and Meydan TV freelancers Nurlan Gahramanli and Fatima Movlamli, arrested in February and March 2025. 

Former Voice of America reporter Ulviyya Ali, arrested in May, who has denied any affiliation with Meydan TV, and freelance photojournalist Ahmad Mukhtar, arrested in August. 

The journalists are among at least 24 journalists currently jailed in Azerbaijan in retaliation for their work, including 20 who have been jailed over alleged Western funding since 2023. Earlier this year, seven journalists and media workers in a case against anticorruption investigative outlet Abzas Media were sentenced to up to nine years in prison on similar charges.

Azerbaijani law requires civil society groups to obtain state approval for foreign grants, which authorities accused the outlets of failing to do. In rulings on similar cases, the European Court of Human Rights found that such an omission was punishable under Azerbaijani law by fines, not criminal sanctions. Independent experts say that authorities refuse to register independent organizations seeking foreign grants, making it impossible to legally receive them. 

The arrests have come amid a decline in relations with the West and a crackdown on civil society and political opposition following Azerbaijan’s military recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in late 2023. Authorities have also dramatically restricted the work of foreign news outlets and charged leading exiled journalists in absentia with major crimes.

CPJ emailed the office of President Ilham Aliyev for comment, but did not receive a reply.