statement<\/a> regarding the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe statement says that \u201cBBC News\u201d made the “forced decision” to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom, which will hinder our ability to report to and from Azerbaijan for our audiences inside and outside the country. The BBC was only verbally informed of this demand and has not received any written communication from the Azerbaijani government, and has been trying to clarify the matter through various channels. The journalistic team in Baku has ceased its work, and the company is seeking clarification on this directive. We will continue to provide news in Azerbaijani,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On February 13, 2025, government-affiliated media outlets in Azerbaijan reported that the editorial offices of \u201cSputnik-Azerbaijan\u201d and \u201cBBC News Azerbaijani\u201d would be closed. It was stated that regulations would be applied by Azerbaijan to the operations of both editorial offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSputnik-Azerbaijan\u201d operates as a branch of Russia\u2019s \u201cRossiya Segodnya\u201d International Information Agency. It was reported that while \u201cAZERTAC\u201d has only one correspondent in Russia, \u201cSputnik Azerbaijan\u201d has a full editorial team of 40 people in Baku. \u201cCurrently, this parity is severely disrupted. The same approach will be applied to ‘BBC Azerbaijani’,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BBC has been operating in Azerbaijan since 1994. After the Azerbaijani government\u2019s decision to stop the broadcast of foreign radio stations on FM frequencies, \u201cBBC Azerbaijani\u201d ceased its radio broadcasts in 2011. After that, \u201cBBC Azerbaijani\u201d expanded its online presence. So far, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not released any statement on the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The media organization made the “forced decision” to close its … <\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":326684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en","category-news","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cBBC News\u201d Closes Its Office in Azerbaijan - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The media organization made the "forced decision" to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/bbc-news-closes-its-office-in-azerbaijan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cBBC News\u201d Closes Its Office in Azerbaijan - 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