Voice of America Contributor Detained in Azerbaijan
The current crisis at VOA may have emboldened Azerbaijan to target the journalist, her colleagues say
Hello, and welcome to The Press Freedom Report.
I’m Liam Scott, and I’m back earlier than expected with urgent news on the detention of a Voice of America stringer in Azerbaijan. This is a developing story.
Voice of America Contributor Detained in Azerbaijan
The current crisis at VOA may have emboldened Azerbaijan to target the journalist, her colleagues say
A Voice of America contributor was detained in Azerbaijan on Wednesday, marking the latest journalist arrest in the Central Asian country.
Baku police detained journalist Ulviyya Guliyeva on May 7 and searched her home, according to local media reports.
Guliyeva has been a contributor to VOA’s Azerbaijani Service since 2019. She stands accused of foreign currency smuggling, which she denies, and is set to be held in pre-trial detention for at least two months, according to Asgar Asgarov, the chief of VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
The reporter’s detention underscores the Azerbaijani government’s broader crackdown on independent media. It also highlights safety concerns for VOA journalists amid the Trump administration’s efforts to gut VOA and its sister outlets.
Azerbaijan ranks among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. As of March, at least 24 reporters were imprisoned in the country over their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“The Azerbaijani government has a long and intensive record of cracking down on independent journalists,” Asgarov told me.
Many of those currently detained work for the independent outlets Abzas Media and Meydan TV, and stand accused of foreign currency smuggling, which press freedom groups have rejected as a politically motivated charge.
Guliyeva often reported on rights abuses and press freedom issues in Azerbaijan, according to Asgarov. “Her work has helped illuminate human rights violations,” he told me.
Guliyeva thought she might eventually be arrested, so she shared a letter with the Caucasus news site JAM News to be published in the event that she was detained. In the letter, Guliyeva denies having committed any crime.
“You all know that the Azerbaijani state is intolerant of independent media,” she wrote. “Our voice will always break the silence in the face of political will that seeks to silence Azerbaijan. This may be the last post I write in freedom. But I believe that a righteous voice cannot be silenced.”
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry and Washington embassy did not immediately respond to my emails requesting comment. The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Congressionally funded but editorially independent news outlets like VOA, also did not immediately respond to my email requesting comment.
Guliyeva’s detention comes months after she was summoned to a police station in the capital Baku for questioning in January.
At the time, the journalist said that she was questioned about Meydan TV, even though she is not an employee there. Guliyeva said she was also placed under a travel ban that blocked her from leaving the country.
“This is a very disturbing situation for me,” Guliyeva told VOA at the time. “I see this as pressure on my journalistic activities.”
Guliyeva’s detention also comes as the Trump administration is working to gut VOA and its sister outlets, like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. VOA has not broadcast or updated its website since March.
After Guliyeva was questioned by police in January, Ayesha Tanzeem, the director of VOA’s South and Central Asia Division, told me that she was worried that Guliyeva might end up imprisoned.
“We were afraid that this was going to happen,” said Tanzeem, who, like Asgarov, is currently on administrative leave alongside about 1,300 other VOA staffers.
Tanzeem told me she thinks the current status of VOA has put a bigger target on the backs of VOA stringers who work in places where the governments tend to repress the media — and perhaps may have emboldened Azerbaijan to detain Guliyeva.
“If authoritarian regimes or local governments feel that a particular journalist is not in favor with the American government, I fear that they may feel more empowered than before into taking action against that particular journalist,” Tanzeem said. Asgarov told me he agreed.
Guliyeva is now one of 11 journalists across VOA, RFE/RL and Radio Free Asia who are imprisoned around the world over their work. RFE/RL’s Farid Mehralizada is also imprisoned in Azerbaijan on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.
As the Trump administration seeks to demolish these outlets, experts have raised concerns about who will advocate for these imprisoned journalists if their employers no longer exist.
The U.S. State Department and U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan did not immediately reply to my emails requesting comment.