Azerbaijan: Hateful online attacks against journalist Arzu Geybullayeva over her views.

November 25, 2020, Azerbaijan—Journalist Arzu Geybullayeva is facing malicious online attacks accusing her of being a traitor for expressing her views and doing her job. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is alarmed by the escalation of online trolling and violence against women journalists. 

While covering the heated Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, journalist Arzu reported the facts transparently, without taking sides as a professional journalist. Her commitment to her job brought forth the torment of online trolling and threats. 

Over the past few weeks, Arzu faced a smear campaign online on Twitter and Facebook, accusing her of being a traitor and paid agent for expressing her objective views. She was a target of hate, harassment, and bullying attacks. 

The campaigns against Arzu were led by accounts created one month ago, seemingly linked to a bot. The threats were further amplified by many nationalist accounts. Amid war, being critical to state policies is a crime. This is the primary accusation against Arzu, which sparked the campaign against her. She was threatened with physical assaults and other disturbing threats.

In her piece “The face of a traitor”, Arzu defended her position stating “Well, I have some news for you, and you won’t like it – there is no time when it comes to speaking truth. You cannot pick when you like it and when you don’t. You cannot praise reports critical of the crimes committed by the other side while dismissing the same reports, and calling stories biased when they are about you. No one is innocent, and mistakes are made all the time. I made them too.” 

CFWIJ has noted the hostile online environment for women journalists and repeatedly calls upon social media platforms to safeguard press freedom. We urge these platforms to develop policies that combat such online trolling to ensure the safety of women journalists. We have launched campaigns addressing online trolling and its horrendous repercussions. 

The Coalition For Women in Journalism commends journalist Arzu for her courage and bravery. We appreciate her commitment to journalistic ethics and principles. CFWIJ repeats its appeal for social media outlets to address the online violence against women journalists on their platforms. 

Continuous online harassment forced Geybulla to temporarily deactivate her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts before eventually making the accounts private. Geybulla believes that the limitations on press freedom and the present situation in Azerbaijan have contributed to the harassment.

After the journalist reported online harassment to Twitter and Facebook, some of the mentioned accounts were taken down for violating community guidelines. She stated that she planned to take legal action but acknowledged it would be difficult since she does not live in Azerbaijan.
Conditions for press freedom are deteriorating in Azerbaijan. The country ranks 168th out of 180 countries, according to the World Press Freedom Index. The Coalition For Women In Journalism offers its support and solidarity to journalists working in Azerbaijan, and we urge the authorities to prioritize their safety.

*This statement has been updated on January 11, 2021.