An Online Voice for Azerbaijan

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom will bestow the Raif Badawi Award for courageous journalists at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 11 October 2017. The award acknowledges journalists in the Islamic world and whistleblowing on human rights violations.  Two of the nominees for the Award come from East and Southeast Europe.

Meydan TV, an online news platform for Azerbaijan.

Meydan TV sees itself as a voice for Azerbaijan – a country where no free media exist. The Azerbaijani online platform, headquartered in Berlin, is among the most successful exile media in Germany. Led by its charismatic founder, author and human rights activist Emin Milli, the online platform reaches half a million subscribers on Facebook and around 70,000 followers on YouTube. The team works with citizen journalists in Azerbaijan who send their photos and reports to the editorial office even though contributors are persecuted and sometimes arrested, and their families are threatened. Despite the danger posed by the authoritarian regime, citizens and journalists in Azerbaijan continue to contribute to the online platform. Meydan TV has thus consistently succeeded in refuting official propaganda. For instance, Meydan TV proved through social media analysis that the number of soldiers killed in the 2016 conflict with Armenia was much larger than the government had admitted. The case of the rock musician Jamal Ali, persecuted by the regime, was also made visible by the online platform through a video.

Coverage of the regime’s retaliation on the family of the exiled blogger Ordukhan Teymurkhan has also gone viral on the net. With its animated videos, Meydan TV is particularly successful among young people, thus calling attention to human rights violations. This video was broadcast after the arrest of the blogger Mehman Huseynov:

Meanwhile, disgruntled citizens from other countries in the region have also started addressing Meydan TV with all possible concerns. Such was the case of a dangerously damaged bridge in the city of Goychay that had been left unrepaired. After the broadcasting of a report in which it was spoken to citizens and representatives of the city, a delegation from the Ministry of Transport in Moscow was sent to the spot and construction works were indeed launched.

The Washington Post wrote on 25 April 2016: ‘The experience of Meydan TV teaches that the digital byways can enable free information to reach closed societies and bypass tyrants.’

And that in Azeri, English and Russian.

More information is available at: http://www.frittord.no/en/priser/pressepriser-ind/pressepriser-for-russ…