Azerbaijan: Basic Freedoms Under Attack

Mehman Aliyev is the director of Turan Information Agency, the first independent news agency created in the post-Soviet space. 

Aliev graduated from Moscow State University's Department of Journalism in 1988. He worked as a contributor to Molodej Azerbaijana (Youth of Azerbaijan) from 1988 to 1989 and to Azerinform State Information Agency from 1989-1990. In 1993 Aliyev spent time working in the Presidential Apparatus Office as a public relations manager.

Aliyev is also cofounder of a number of press organizations in Azerbaijan, including the Press Council, Yeni Nesil Journalist Union, Elmar Huseynov Foundation and Baku Press Club.

Shahin Abbasov is the deputy chief of party at the IREX/USAID Media Advancement Project in Azerbaijan. He is also a partner in S&A Partnership Ltd, a Baku-based privately owned consulting company.

Abbasov obtained his master's degree from the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in 1997. In 2003-2004 Abbasov was Reagan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC. Prior to this, he spent more than 10 years working in print media in Azerbaijan. He was deputy editor-in-chief at Echo and Zerkalo daily newspapers in Baku. He is a freelance correspondent for EurasiaNet.

Khadija Ismayilova is the bureau chief for the Baku Bureau in RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service.  Before joining RFE/RL, Ismayilova worked for over ten years in journalism, holding editor positions with several Azerbaijani newspapers and, as a reporter, covering politics and the economy for such publications as Echo, Caspian Business News, EurasiaNet, Washington Times, BBC, Deutche Welle, Voice of America, and Radio Liberty. 

Ismayilova has written on the human rights situation in both Iran and Azerbaijan, on oil and the economy, and internal and regional politics.  She was awarded the H.B. Zardabi Prize by the Azerbaijani Journalists’ Union for her articles on internal and international politics in 2001.  Ismayilova taught investigative journalism at the ICFJ Journalism School in Baku before joining RFE/RL and continues training journalism students and young reporters in various projects.

Michael Hall is the regional director for the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Open Society Institute. Hall holds an MA in regional studies for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia from Harvard University.

He has studied in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and previously worked for the International Crisis Group in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the Aga Khan Humanities Project in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.