Azerbaijan Denies Western Journalists Access Ahead of Climate Summit

Azerbaijan is denying Western journalists access ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit, known as the Cop29, scheduled for later this year in Baku, The Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Guardian report said that Western journalists were denied entry to an energy conference in Baku earlier last month.

At least three journalists from Britain and France said they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite having registered with the event’s organizers weeks in advance.

The journalists said they were not told a valid reason why they were denied entry, but decided to leave the venue after “frightening” and “intimidating” meetings with the organizers.

The conference took place shortly before Human Rights Watch revealed at least 25 cases of journalists and activists arrested or sentenced in Azerbaijan over the past year. Almost all of them remain in detention.

In December, Yerevan agreed that it would not oppose Baku’s bid to host the Cop29 in return for the repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war being held by Azerbaijan. Soon after the agreement, 31 Armenian captives were returned, with many more, including former and current Artsakh officials, being held illegally by Azerbaijan.

Lawrence Walker and Christopher Eales, senior investigative journalists for the energy news agency Montel News, told The Guardian they were denied access to the Baku Energy Week conference despite confirming their registration with the event organizers in mid-May.

Another British journalist, who has written in the past criticizing the Azerbaijani government and asked The Guardian not to be named, was also denied access to the event, despite having received accreditation weeks before the event.

The journalists left the venue after hearing the organizer on the phone say “take them away” in Russian.

The spokesman added that journalists were also later prevented from visiting the exhibition after conference organizers told officials at the venue to “keep an eye on these journalists and make sure they don’t infiltrate the exhibition.”

Baku Energy Week was opened by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, followed by a two-day forum sponsored by BP, France’s TotalEnergies and German energy company Uniper, attended by executives from Socar, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, as well as Western energy companies.

Richard Sverrisson, editor-in-chief of Montel News told The Guardian that he was “deeply concerned” about press freedom and that journalists would be “intimidated and obstructed out of their jobs for simply doing their jobs” at the upcoming Cop29 talks.

“I’m glad they got home safe and sound. I just hope other journalists won’t be treated like this again for just trying to report on an international conference they had accreditation for,” he added.

“A free press and civil society are crucial in the fight against climate destruction. Azerbaijan is trying to silence both, most clearly demonstrated by the beating and imprisonment of Gubad Ibadoglu, a prominent critic of Azerbaijan’s fossil fuel industry. Authoritarian oil states cannot be in charge of climate negotiations,” May Rosner, senior activist at climate advocacy group Global Witness, told The Guardian.