In Azerbaijan, journalists are working under huge risks of arrest. Emin Milli, writer and dissident from Azerbaijan, was imprisoned in 2009 for two and a half years for his critical views about the government. After his release, Milli started his own non-profit online media, Meydan TV. Since then, he and his coworkers, as well as his family, have been constantly harassed by the government. Milli’s brother-in-law remains detained by the government under the charge of “tax evasion.”
At the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in October, Milli launched a campaign to support Meydan TV. He asked that journalists worldwide send in original pieces of reporting to Meydan TV, as a gesture of support to their work. All the articles, photos and videos will be attributed to the authors.
Meydan TV prides itself on standing for editorial independence and diversity. The site is published in Azerbaijani, English, and Russian. It was launched in spring 2013 through Azerbaijan’s first successful crowd-funding initiative, and is administered by a German NGO, Vereinigung für die Demokratie in Aserbaidschan (VDA).