"Prophylactic" talks at GPO outrage Azeri journalists

The Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) has held the so-called "prophylactic" conversations with several Azerbaijani journalists, who disseminated information prior to it was released by the country's Ministry of Defence (MoD). Journalists have treated such conversations as a violation of the freedom of speech and urged ministries to be more operative.

On July 27, GPO officials warned Fikret Ibishbeili, the owner of the "jamaz.info" website, and Agil Agishev, the owner of the "miq.az" website, about the inadmissibility of spreading information that casts a shadow on the country's armed forces.

This January, Ibishbeili was fined for spreading false information about the shelling of the city of Shusha from Khankendi; and in 2017, he was sentenced to 7 years on charges of extortion and bribe-taking. In exchange, he promised not to publish any damaging information.

Ibishbeili said that he had published information about the mine explosion of the commander of a military unit in Kelbadjar several hours before it was officially announced by the MoD; and the GPO treated this act as detrimental to the country's interests.

On his YouTube channel, Agil Agishev, the owner of the "miq.az" website, criticized the appointments at the Azerbaijani MoD.

According to Agishev, he was reprimanded for making the publication without the MoD's consent. He believes that he was summoned to the GPO because of the publication about the conflicts among generals.

Uzeir Djafarli, a journalist, believes that the reason for the fact that the media publish reports before ministries is in the fact that the latter work too slowly.