Ulviyya Ali nominated for Free Press Award

Ulviya Ali, a journalist arrested in Azerbaijan in the Meydan TV case, has been nominated for the 2025 Free Press Awards by Free Press Unlimited. She is a finalist in the "Most Resilient Journalist" category.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on December 2, it was reported that the Meydan TV case materials have been transferred for review to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes. At the first hearing on December 12, the court refused the lawyers' motion to close the criminal case and release the accused. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an end to the persecution of critics of the Azerbaijani government.

Ulviya Ali (Guliyeva) has been nominated for the 2025 Free Press Awards by Free Press Unlimited. She has been shortlisted for the Most Resilient Journalist category, according to a statement on the organization's website.

The award's organizing committee noted that Ulviya Ali has covered repression, political trials, and civil liberties violations in Azerbaijan for over a decade. "After her media accreditation was revoked, she continued to work as the country's last independent journalist. "She has published over 500 reports and produced several documentaries on systemic human rights violations," the publication states.

The organization also cites the journalist's own statements about her work. "I have been engaged in journalism for 10 years, and for the last eight months I have been carrying out this mission from prison. I am already convinced that serving humanity is more important than physical freedom. If isolated prisoners want me to raise their voices, then it would be unfair for me to suspend my journalism," said Ulviya Ali.

Ulviya Ali "continues to write from prison despite medical risks, pressure, and censorship, documenting abuses within the prison system itself," Free Press Unlimited noted in a report.

Another candidate in this category is Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi, who was wounded in 2023 during an attack on journalists on the Lebanese-Israeli border and lost her right leg. Assi is presented as a symbol of impunity for crimes against journalists.

The winners of the 2025 Free Press Awards will be announced on February 4 in The Hague, the Netherlands, at the Free Press Live event in the Nieuwspoort Center.

Azerbaijani human rights activist and head of the Center for Monitoring Political Prisoners, Elshan Hasanov, called Ulviya Ali's nomination for the prestigious international award well-deserved.

"Ulviya Ali carries out her journalistic work honestly and with principle. She did not stop working as a journalist, even when she was threatened with arrest and banned from leaving the country. She covered the trials of her arrested colleagues until the very end and ultimately ended up in prison herself. Even from pretrial detention, she continues to work as a journalist, submitting reports on violations of prisoners' rights, and managing to prepare interviews with other political prisoners. In particular, her interviews with the young researcher Bahruz Samedov and the socio-political figure Akif Gurbanov were published," Hasanov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Journalists from other media outlets, including Toplum TV, Abzas Media, and Kanal-13, have also been persecuted in Azerbaijan. On June 20, journalists and employees of Abzas Media were sentenced to imprisonment for terms ranging from 7.5 to 9 years. They denied the charges in court, emphasizing that they were being persecuted for their professional activities and for investigating cases of corruption.