Meydan TV

Meydan TV is an Azerbaijani non-profit media organisation founded in Berlin in 2013 by Azerbaijani activist Emin Milli and Germany-based journalist Habib Muntezhir. They launched the platform abroad to avoid the restrictions applied to Azerbaijani media. The website operates in Azerbaijani, Russian, and English.

It publishes stories on corruption, human rights, freedom, and social affairs in Azerbaijan and is a media partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Meydan TV offices and reporters often suffer attacks and censure. In 2014, the Meydan TV office in Berlin was attacked; in 2015, four Meydan TV journalists in Azerbaijan were banned from leaving the country. In 2016, 15 Meydan TV journalists were included in a criminal case initiated by the prosecutor's office in the country.

According to the co-founder of Meydan TV, Habib Muntazir, the organisation strives to provide Azerbaijani society with transparent information. However, due to regular bans, the website's accessibility decreases for Azerbaijani readers. The organisation created a mirror website to avoid the block placed on Meydan TV in Azerbaijan, but it was also blocked recently. As a result, there has been a sharp decrease in its audience.

Due to all these limitations, the editorial team tries to increase activity on social media, where the media outlet has 800,000 followers on Facebook and 556,000 on YouTube.

Social media cannot compensate for the website's comprehensive activity; however, Muntazir is not optimistic about Meydan TV’s restrictions being removed in Azerbaijan soon.

Last updated: December 2022