The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by Azerbaijani authorities to bring six new charges against four Toplum TV journalists and the Friday arrest of the independent news outlet’s reporter Farid Ismayilov, who was remanded into pretrial custody.

“The new charges against Toplum TV underscores an unprecedented media crackdown waged by Azerbaijani authorities,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “The jailing of Farid Ismayilov despite serious health issues is particularly concerning. He and all unjustly jailed Azerbaijani journalists should be immediately released.”

Police raided Toplum TV’s office in March 2024 and charged the outlet’s founder Alasgar Mammadli, video editor Mushfig Jabbar, social media manager Elmir Abbasov, and Ismayilov with currency smuggling, releasing Abbasov and Ismayilov under travel bans.

The Toplum TV staff are among 18 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s largest independent media charged with major financial crimes over alleged Western donor funding amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.

The charges increase the potential jail time facing the journalists from a maximum of eight to 12 years. The journalists denied the charges and alleged they were retaliatory, Toplum TV reported.

Ismayilov’s lawyer, Zibeyda Sadygova, called the journalist’s pretrial detention unjustified and told CPJ that he is frail, requiring frequent medical care following lung surgery last year.

CPJ’s annual prison census found that Azerbaijan was among the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in 2024.

Separately, on January 11, border guards at Baku International Airport, in the capital, prevented independent journalist Khanim Mustafayeva from boarding a flight and informed her that she was under a travel ban, without providing more information.

On January 16 Azerbaijani authorities interrogated Ulviyya Ali, a reporter with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America, in connection with a currency smuggling case against Germany-based independent outlet Meydan TV and told her that she was under a travel ban.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which oversees the police, for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.