Columbia World Freedom of Expression seeks to contribute to the event of an built-in and progressive jurisprudence and understanding on freedom of expression and knowledge all over the world. It maintains an intensive database of worldwide case legislation. That is its e-newsletter coping with current developments within the discipline.
Think about a cell of 4 sq. meters, with a weathered, unkempt flooring, a camp mattress, a threadbare blanket, filth, vermin. These are the situations of jailed journalist Sevinj Vagifgizi and lots of others in Azerbaijan. Reporters With out Borders reconstructed their solitary confinement in a container at Place de la République, Paris, earlier this 12 months.
Final Friday, April 3, Azerbaijan’s Supreme Courtroom upheld the nine-year sentence handed to Vagifgizi, Editor-in-Chief of Abzas Media, the nation’s main outlet investigating corruption. The Courtroom additionally upheld the prolonged sentences of her colleagues—Ulvi Hasanli, Hafiz Babali, Nargiz Absalamova, Elnara Gasimova, and Mahammad Kekalov—and RFE/RL correspondent Farid Mehralizada, all discovered responsible of “performing as an organized group to commit a number of monetary crimes.” The journalists intend to file a criticism with the European Courtroom of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Azerbaijan’s patterns of silencing repeat: investigative journalism meets monetary costs. CGFoE is that includes a current ECtHR ruling within the case of journalist Khadija Ismayilova, acknowledged extensively for her reporting on corruption within the excessive ranks of Azerbaijani officers and convicted of unlawful entrepreneurship and tax evasion. Such retaliation for her journalistic work, the Courtroom concluded, “was not solely illegal but in addition grossly arbitrary and incompatible with the precept of the rule of legislation.”
Azerbaijan imprisons 24 journalists at this time, becoming a member of the highest ten of the world’s worst jailers of reporters like China and Myanmar. “[T]he Azerbaijani authorities have drawn purple traces for journalists,” Vagifgizi wrote from jail. “Certainly not ought to the unlawful actions of the president and his household be mentioned. Somewhat than stopping at these purple traces, we selected the purple stripes of jail.” Her jail ID, Vagifgizi explains, has three purple stripes—a mark of a high-risk prisoner.
Regardless of that, Vagifgizi and her colleagues proceed to show rampant corruption—lately, from inside their jail cells.
Solitary confinement cell of imprisoned Azerbaijani journalists, reconstructed by Reporters With out Borders (RSF) as a part of an advocacy marketing campaign. Photograph credit score: RSF
Sevinj Vagifgizi and different Azerbaijani journalists jailed on spurious costs within the Abzas Media case. Photograph credit score: RSF
European Courtroom of Human RightsKhadija Ismayilova v. Azerbaijan (no. 4)Choice Date: January 27, 2026The Third Part of the European Courtroom of Human Rights held that Azerbaijan violated articles 6 §§ 1 and three, 7, 10, and 18 of the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR). The case involved the legal prosecution of Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist identified for exposing corruption amongst high-ranking Azerbaijani officers, who had been charged with incitement to suicide, embezzlement, unlawful entrepreneurship, tax evasion, and abuse of energy following a criticism by a former colleague. Though she was acquitted of some costs, home courts in the end convicted her of unlawful entrepreneurship for conducting journalistic actions with out accreditation and of tax evasion—sentencing her to imprisonment later decreased to a suspended sentence. The Courtroom held that the home courts utilized the related legal provisions in an arbitrary and unforeseeable method and did not adequately tackle the applicant’s key arguments, thereby violating the rules of honest trial and legality below articles 6 and seven of the ECHR. It additional discovered that the legal proceedings constituted an illegal interference with Ismayilova’s freedom of expression and concluded that the prosecution had been used as a device to silence and punish her for her investigative journalism, in violation of Articles 10 and 18 of the Conference.
Pešić v. SerbiaDecision Date: January 13, 2026The European Courtroom of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that Serbia violated an activist’s proper to freedom of expression by failing to strike a good stability between competing rights in a defamation case. Vesna Pešić had been discovered liable in civil proceedings for an article criticizing Serbia’s then-Minister of the Inside and she or he was ordered to pay damages. The Courtroom concluded that the interference together with her freedom of expression was not mandatory in a democratic society, because the home courts didn’t adequately stability her proper to free expression in opposition to the safety of repute. It emphasised the heightened safety afforded to political speech and issues of public curiosity, discovering that the sanction imposed was disproportionate and had a chilling impact on freedom of expression.
Sociedade Independente De Comunicação, S.A v. PortugalDecision Date: January 13, 2026The European Courtroom of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that there had been no violation of Article 10 of the European Conference on Human Rights within the case Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, S.A. v. Portugal (No. 2). The case involved a Portuguese tv firm that broadcast footage of two personal people concerned in a heated change with a comic throughout a stand-up comedy present with out their categorical consent. Home courts ordered the corporate to pay damages to the people for violating their rights to privateness and picture. The ECtHR held that the Portuguese authorities correctly balanced the applicant firm’s proper to freedom of expression below Article 10 with the people’ proper to respect for personal life below Article 8. It concluded that the interference with the applicant’s freedom of expression was mandatory in a democratic society, significantly as a result of the published involved personal people and lacked any clear public curiosity.
APR 16: Focused: Free Expression After US Overseas Assist Cuts. ARTICLE 19 will launch a brand new report analyzing the affect of US international assist cuts on freedom of expression protection work. What does the weakened sector require to rebuild and persevere within the new actuality? Extra broadly, what does it imply to defend human rights at this time and within the close to future? Subsequent Tuesday, April 16, 2026. On-line. 8-9:30 AM (New York) / 1-2:30 PM (London). Register right here.
● Georgia: Deportation of Azerbaijani Journalist Afgan Sadigov Bypasses ECtHR Ruling. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Mission covers the deportation of exiled Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov, Editor-in-Chief of Azel TV, an impartial YouTube information channel, from Georgia to Azerbaijan final week. Discovering Sadigov responsible of insulting the police primarily based on a Fb publish, a Georgian court docket handed him a effective and a three-year entry ban. A authorized battle previous the deportation—Sadigov was earlier arrested in Georgia on the request of Azerbaijan, the place he confronted extortion costs—reached the European Courtroom of Human Rights, which granted an injunction to stop his extradition.
● Switzerland: Azerbaijani Journalist Emin Huseynov in Hazard. In one other case of transnational repression, the Worldwide Press Institute (IPI) calls on Swiss authorities to make sure the security of exiled Azerbaijani journalist Emin Huseynov, Founding father of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Security. Huseynov reported being adopted in Geneva after he approached Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with questions from impartial media through the Munich Safety Convention. IPI additionally cites repeated surveillance and a coordinated on-line hate marketing campaign in opposition to the journalist. See CGFoE’s evaluation of an earlier choice regarding Huseynov by the European Courtroom of Human Rights.
● Azerbaijan: Equity Report—Case of Journalist and Opposition Chief Tofig Yagublu. TrialWatch, a Clooney Basis for Justice initiative, launched a report on Azerbaijan’s prosecution of journalist and opposition activist Tofig Yagublu, highlighting violations of worldwide honest trial rights, together with the prohibition on politically motivated prosecution and arbitrary pre-trial detention. “His prosecution and conviction signify a critical departure from the rule of legislation,” the report states, noting the nation’s escalating repression of voices that criticize the federal government. On April 2, 2026, the Supreme Courtroom of Azerbaijan upheld Yagublu’s conviction and nine-year jail sentence.
This Week in Protests
Protests in opposition to Israel’s newly enacted demise penalty legislation, de facto making use of solely to Palestinians, proceed: final Thursday, April 2, demonstrations befell in Gaza; on Friday, Palestinians and Israelis protested within the West Financial institution (mid-last week, a whole lot held sit-ins and marches within the West Financial institution, and 1000’s protested throughout Syria, with extra solidarity actions occurring globally). Anti-war protests proceed worldwide: on Friday, a whole lot demonstrated in entrance of the American Embassy in Sri Lanka; on Saturday, 1000’s marched for peace in Germany; on Sunday, UK police arrested seven at a peace encampment close to the Lakenheath airbase on suspicion of their help for Palestine Motion; and on Wednesday, demonstrators blocked visitors outdoors the Israeli embassy in London, decrying the lethal strikes on Lebanon.
Israel: March 2026—ongoing
On Saturday, April 4, at the very least 17 anti-war protesters have been arrested throughout a violent crackdown on a rally of round a thousand individuals in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a whole lot extra protesting in Haifa and Jerusalem. The forceful dispersal, a part of Israel’s ongoing crackdown on the fitting to protest, befell below wartime restrictions, regardless of a Excessive Courtroom ruling allowing the demonstration.
Calls for: Organizers, together with the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group Standing Collectively, referred to as for an finish to the so-called without end struggle—“from Gaza to Lebanon to the West Financial institution to Iran”—that’s harming each Israelis and all the area.
Significance: As extra individuals voice anti-war calls for, the demonstrations mirror a rising public fatigue and disillusionment with Israel’s warmongering authorities.
State Response: On March 28, anti-war protests in round twenty areas have been violently dispersed below emergency restrictions, with 22 arrests. On April 4, responding to a petition filed by the Affiliation for Civil Rights in Israel and activist Itamar Greenberg, Israel’s Excessive Courtroom of Justice dominated that the fitting to protest existed even in wartime and required that demonstrations of at the very least 600 individuals be allowed at Habima Sq. in Tel Aviv (and of at the very least 150 at different websites). Regardless of the Courtroom’s interim order allowing the protests, Israeli police moved to disperse the April 4 rally, arresting at the very least 17 individuals, refusing to permit detainees to shelter underground throughout an air raid siren, and obstructing medical assist to a protester who suffered cardiac arrest.
FoE Violations: The Excessive Courtroom famous an obvious disparity in enforcement: protest gatherings have been being policed below Dwelling Entrance Command restrictions, whereas different public assemblies weren’t. A additional listening to within the case, addressing the broader query of protest rights throughout wartime, was postponed till April 10.
Interview with Lee C. Bollinger: A Response to Authoritarian Assaults on Universities, by Paul Hond. In his newest guide, College: A Reckoning, former Columbia College President and CGFoE Founder Lee C. Bollinger argues that, at a deadly time for democracy, the college performs a significant position. “[W]e have to acknowledge that we’d be stronger,” Bollinger advised Columbia Journal of universities, “if we had extra collective resistance and extra collective motion.”
This article is reproduced with the permission of World Freedom of Expression. For an archive of earlier newsletters, see right here.
