The lawyer for the editor-in-chief of an Azerbaijani news website has claimed his client was tortured following his arrest. Nijat Aliyev from Islamic news website Azadexber was arrested on 20 May for narcotics charges and put in two months of...
If the ignominy of coming last in the Eurovision Song Contest was not enough, Norway suffered a further humiliation when it was alleged that a journalist from their official delegation was threatened, stripped to his underwear and told to stamp on...
Moscow journalist Sergei Aslanyan was stabbed repeatedly earlier this week. Anslanyan, who specialises in motoring and hosts a programme on state Mayak radio station, was attacked on 29 May after a stranger called him and asked to leave...
Holding rallies and demonstrations is a right, specified in article 31 of the Russian constitution and one which is regularly abused by Russian authorities. Since 31 July 2009 the opposition has held protests in support of peaceful assembly on the...
A Russian journalist has been hospitalised after being stabbed 20 times. Sergei Aslanyan from Radio Mayak, was lured out of his house by an anonymous caller who invited him for a chat at around midnight. The former presenter on Echo...
The landslide winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Sweden’s Loreen, has thwarted Azerbaijan’s attempts to use the competition to whitewash its record on free speech
Azerbaijani fans of Sacha Baron Cohen are out of luck if they are interested in seeing his latest movie, The Dictator. In the film Baron Cohen plays corrupt dictator Admiral General Aladeen, a character inspired by the late eccentric Libyan...
Police in Azerbaijan crack down on a protest in Baku ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest.
As we approach tomorrow’s Eurovision song contest in Azerbaijan, Index CEO Kirsty Hughes asks if the event will shine a light on the country’s atrocious human rights record
READ MORE: Azerbaijan facing the music thanks to Eurovision
AND: Eurovision mired in deeper controversy by further clampdown on dissent in Baku
Song contest puts focus on human rights.
SIGN INDEX’S PETITION FOR FREE SPEECH IN AZERBAIJAN HERE