‘Shirin and the girls were detained’ was a phrase first whispered in 2015 while Meydan TV staff were being trained in Ukraine. I was working with them at the time. The news shocked everyone, and I remember one of my colleagues arguing with everyone after hearing the news while we were in the office of the Ukraine media outlet Nashi Qroshi.
This month, a similar refrain was uttered when Meydan TV journalist Aysel Umudova sent a voice message on Telegram saying ‘Aytaj, Khayala, Aynur, Natig were detained, everyone was detained’. Not long after, Umudova herself was detained.
By using several state agencies, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service, Azerbaijan’s government illustrates how scared it is of independent media representatives.
Meydan TV has been targeted and surveilled in a multitude of ways since 2015. At that time, the government decided tax evasion accusations weren’t working anymore, and so decided to adopt a new strategy of pressure — surveilling journalists using Pegasus technology.
All Meydan TV staff, their close friends, and family members, like all other media-related workers, were surveilled by the new technology because of their activity as journalists. Even pro-government media representatives like Eynulla Fatullayev, the editor-in-chief of Haqqin.az, were surveilled.
Then the government changed the law, determining that if a media outlet is not registered in Azerbaijan under a state agency, then it cannot be counted as media. There was a period following this where every time Meydan TV journalists asked for a comment from state media agencies, they were told: ‘I don’t think Meydan TV is media and will not respond to you.’
But with each step the government took to suppress them, Meydan TV staff found a solution. And so the government, angered that they could not win this fight against a small media organisation, ramped up their pressure.
For example, journalist Khayala Aghayeva was beaten after defending Abzas Media Editor-in-Chief Sevinj Vagifgizi’s house during a police raid. She was also one of the Meydan TV journalists detained on 6 December.
After her arrest, Meydan TV editor Orkhan Mammad wrote about Aghayeva on Facebook, noting that she had started working with the media outlet when she was very young, leading everyone to call her ‘our daughter’.
Sevda Samadova, the editor of Meydan TV’s Russian-language section, was forced to leave Azerbaijan during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was only given two choices by the government: ‘Work for us or we may find a reason to deport you’.
Natig Javadli, another of the Meydan TV journalists detained on 6 December, never imagined that his journalism would lead him to be accused of committing a crime, having witnessed the early 1990s and the years of democracy during former president Abulfaz Elchibay’s days. Javadli was someone who could interview anyone, he was someone who lived and breathed news reporting.
Aynur Elgunash, who was beaten at her home for fighting for her personal things such as her mobile phone, laptop, and iPad, had worked in journalism for around 30 years. Though she has a disability, Elgunash did not allow any of her family members to speak about it in order to avoid receiving any special treatment from the authorities.
‘I’m a journalist and journalism is not a crime. And I’m a prisoner of Ilham Aliyev’, Elgunash said after her arrest.
In 2015, investigators from the Grave Crimes Office published photos of Meydan TV journalists filmed while staff gathered to celebrate the New Year.
‘Do you work together?’ the investigator Ali Babayev asked me.
At the time, to defend each other, our response was no, but now, looking at my friends, my former co-workers from the freedom of another country in the South Caucasus fighting for its freedom and fighting to reject the authoritarian path of Azerbaijan, I can say that yes, I did work with them.
I worked with them and I am proud of this. I am proud that I was a part of Meydan TV and that this time of working together is a more than valuable piece of my life.
CREDITS
This is a repost of an entry by Aytan Farhadova, which was originally shared in OC Media’s OC Insider member newsletter. It has been shared on NEMO’s website with the appropiate permission.
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