{{Short description|Berlin-based Azerbaijani non-profit media organization}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} thumb|Meydan TV logo '''Meydan TV''' is a Berlin-based<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.meydan.tv/en/site/politics/858/Attack-on-Meydan-TV's-Berlin-Office.htm |title=Attack on Meydan TV's Berlin Office – Meydan TV |access-date=14 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180525063302/https://www.meydan.tv/en/site/politics/858/Attack-on-Meydan-TV's-Berlin-Office.htm |archive-date=25 May 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Azerbaijani non-profit media organization. Founded by dissident blogger and former political prisoner Emin Milli in 2013,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/02/11/new-kid-on-the-block/|title = New Kid on the Block| date=30 May 2024 }}</ref> Meydan TV publishes news in Azerbaijani, English, and Russian.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.meydan.tv/ |title=Home |website=meydan.tv}}</ref> In May 2013, Meydan TV announced plans for broadcasting simultaneously through the Turkish Türksat communications. The word "meydan" means town square in Azerbaijani.
The media organization, known for its reporting on corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, has been targeted for repression by the authoritarian Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025 |title=Trial of Meydan TV Journalists Begins in Azerbaijan A Year After Arrests |url=https://www.occrp.org/en/news/trial-of-meydan-tv-journalists-begins-in-azerbaijan-a-year-after-arrests |work=OCCRP}}</ref>
==News coverage== Meydan TV gained prominence for its reports and online broadcasts on corruption, human rights and other issues in Azerbaijan, which have been used by the international media, particularly during the 2015 European Games in Baku when several reporters and foreign observers were barred from the country. Meydan TV is a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Several reports of Meydan TV were made with the support of European Endowment for Democracy (EED) organization.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democracyendowment.eu/we-support/meydan-tv-azerbaijans-free-and-alternative-media-channel/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141121230442/https://www.democracyendowment.eu/we-support/meydan-tv-azerbaijans-free-and-alternative-media-channel/|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 November 2014|title=Meydan TV - Azerbaijan's free and alternative Media Channel|publisher=European Endowment for Democracy|accessdate=12 April 2016}}</ref>
During the 2015 European Games Azerbaijani channel Lider TV interviewed a local man who posed as a foreigner in order to create a "provocation".<ref name="rferl">{{cite web | url =https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-tv-interview-baku-games-foreigners/27079263.html|title=Pro-Government TV In Baku Red-Faced After Fake-Fan Fail |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty| date=18 June 2015| access-date =12 April 2016}}</ref> After Meydan TV identified the interviewee as Seymur Seferov, a displaced Azerbaijani citizen from the Jabrayil Rayon, the Lider TV report on purported foreigner went viral in Azerbaijani social media.<ref name="rferl"/> In 2015 it was reported that several Meydan TV journalists were prosecuted, arrested or received travel bans (including Aynura Ismayil, Shirin Abbasov, Ayten Farhadova and Aysel Umudova).<ref name="refworld">{{cite web | url =http://www.refworld.org/docid/564c3f694.html |title=Azerbaijan: Campaign Against Meydan TV Continues|publisher=Institute for War and Peace Reporting| author=Afgan Mukhtarli|date=3 November 2015| accessdate =12 April 2016}}</ref> According to Ali Hasanov, Meydan TV website and several other media outlets were not following the accreditation rules for foreign media representatives in Azerbaijan approved on 18 March 2015.<ref name="refworld"/>
On 9 April 2016, Azerbaijani website Haqqin.az accused Meydan TV of overestimation of Azerbaijani casualties during the 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes. Meydan TV which put the number of military casualties at 94 instead of officially stated 31 compiled the list according to posts in social networks.<ref name="haqqin">{{cite web | url =http://haqqin.az/news/67689|title=Meydan TV выдает раненых азербайджанских солдат за убитых|publisher=Haqqin.az| language=Russian|date=9 April 2016| accessdate =12 April 2016}}</ref> Haqqin.az stated that soldier Aidyn Hasanov listed by Meydan TV among those killed was actually treated in a military hospital for arm injury.<ref name="haqqin"/>
== Arrests and detentions == {{Seealso|Human rights in Azerbaijan}} According to Reporters Without Borders, President Ilham Aliyev launched “a new wave of fierce repression against the country’s last remaining journalists” in late 2023.<ref>{{cite news |title=She covered human rights for VOA in Azerbaijan. Now she’s in jail. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/05/15/voice-of-america-journalist-arrested-azerbaijan/ |work=The Washington Post |date=15 May 2025}}</ref> Meydan TV's entire newsroom staff was detained in December 2024.<ref>{{cite news |title=Another Courageous Journalist Jailed in Azerbaijan |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/16/another-courageous-journalist-jailed-azerbaijan |work=Human Rights Watch |date=16 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Imprisoned Meydan TV journalists begin hunger strike |url=https://www.meydan.tv/en/article/detained-meydan-tv-journalists-begin-hunger-strike/ |work=Meydan TV |date=4 July 2025}}</ref>
On 6 December 2024, Aysel Umudova and Khayala Aghayeva were arrested by Baku police along with four other Meydan TV journalists as part of what became known as the “Meydan TV case.”<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 December 2024 |title=Police detain remaining Meydan TV journalists in Azerbaijan |url=https://oc-media.org/police-detain-remaining-meydan-tv-journalists-in-azerbaijan/ |access-date=14 April 2025 |website=OC Media |language=en}}</ref> All six jailed journalists maintained their innocence and viewed the case as politically motivated, a stance echoed by local human rights defenders who immediately recognized them as ''de facto'' political prisoners.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Cambodia: Eleven human rights defenders jailed |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-0035-2014069 |access-date=14 April 2025 |website=Human Rights Documents online|doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-0035-2014069 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==See also== *Abzas Media *Media freedom in Azerbaijan
==References== {{reflist|colwidth = 40em}}
==External links== *[https://www.meydan.tv Official website] *{{Facebook|MeydanTelevision|Meydan TV}}
Category:Azerbaijani news websites Category:Television channels and stations established in 2013 Category:Internet properties established in 2013 Category:Non-profit organisations based in Berlin Category:Online nonprofit organizations Category:Free Media Awards winners