The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of Shamshad Agha, chief editor of the independent news site Arqument.az, and calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release him and other jailed journalists.

“Shamshad Agha’s arrest underscores a grim intent by Azerbaijani authorities to silence and further restrict the country’s small and embattled independent media community,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijan’s government should immediately reverse its unprecedented media crackdown and release Agha along with all other unjustly jailed journalists.”

Police in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, detained Agha on the night of February 4 and searched his home, confiscating his computer, an old cell phone, his brother’s phone, and other data storage and computer equipment, according to news reports.

Agha’s lawyer Shahla Humbatova told media that Agha was arrested as a suspect in a criminal case against Germany-based outlet Meydan TV, with which Agha also collaborates. Six Meydan TV journalists were detained on currency smuggling charges in December.

Those arrested are among at least 19 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s largest remaining independent media charged since late 2023 over alleged receipt of Western donor funding, amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West. Several other journalists have been jailed on separate charges.

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

Agha was previously questioned by police in connection with currency smuggling charges against the independent news outlet Toplum TV in July 2024 and placed under a travel ban.

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