Affiliated media: Lights of Mingachevir, Newspaper

Incident date: November 10, 2022

Attack type:

• Selective application of repressive laws

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Facebook page of Vüqar Qurdqanlı

Location: Azerbaijan, Baku

Additional information:

The Media Development Agency refused to include several media outlets in the state register. The Agency responded with a refusal to include 24saat.org, az24saat.org, mi-news.az, and the newspaper Lights of Mingachevir. The refusal was motivated by the «unstable operation» of these media outlets. The Agency believes that the activities of media outlets that do not disseminate at least 20 news and materials daily cannot be considered sustainable. At the beginning of 2022, the parliament of Azerbaijan adopted a new law «On Media». The law obliges media outlets and journalists to register with a unified state register and obtain a state journalist certificate. The law took effect in September 2022. The Media Development Agency will start suing media outlets and journalists who fail to register within 6 months.