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Western journalists were denied access to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns about the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.
At least three journalists from the UK and France told the Guardian they felt “unsafe” after being denied access to Baku Energy A weekly forum, despite registering with the event organizers weeks in advance.
The journalists said they were not given a valid reason why they were turned away, but chose to leave the venue after “intimidating” and “intimidating” encounters with organizers.
The conference was held shortly before Human Rights Watch research revealed at least 25 cases of the arrest or conviction of journalists and activists in Azerbaijan over the past year, with almost all remaining in custody.
Activists and civil society groups have expressed concern that climate advocacy is stifling ahead of the UN’s Cop29 climate talks which will be held in Baku later this year.
Lawrence Walker and Christopher Eales, both senior investigative journalists at Montel News, an energy news channel, told the Guardian they were turned away from the Baku Energy Week conference and exhibition venue despite confirming their registration with event organizers in mid- May.
Another UK-based journalist who has written critically about Azerbaijan government in the past and requested anonymity, was also denied access to the events despite receiving accreditation weeks before the event.
Journalists left the hall after hearing an organizer say “take them away” in Russian while talking on the phone. They said they believed it was a call to the establishment’s security staff.
“When you’re in a country with no freedom of the press, where local journalists are jailed, you don’t mess around,” Eales said.
A spokesman for events company Caspian Event Organizers said a “fundamental misunderstanding” meant journalists were accredited for the exhibition but not the forum.
The journalists’ email correspondence, seen by the Guardian, requested access to the two events, which took place in different locations in Baku.
The spokesman added that journalists were also later turned away from the exhibition after conference organizers told venue staff to “take care of these journalists and make sure they do not enter the exhibition”.
The organizer “felt very offended that he had to expend so much energy” on “three very pushy foreign journalists” at the conference venue, the spokesman said. He admitted the reaction was “not very professional” and blamed the “very intense” period of the event.
Media Accreditation for Cop 29 will be done through the UN Climate Change Secretariat, and prospective reporters will register online. Cop29 organizers did not respond to a request for comment.
Baku Energy Week was opened by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, followed by a two-day forum sponsored by BP, France’s TotalEnergies and German energy firm Uniper, and featuring bosses from Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas firm Socar, as well as other Western energy firms.
Richard Sverison, editor-in-chief of Montel News, said it was “deeply worrying” for press freedom and the upcoming Cop29 talks that journalists would be “intimidated and obstructed for simply doing their jobs”.
“I’m relieved they got home safe and sound. I just hope that other journalists will not be treated like this again for simply trying to report on an international conference for which they were accredited,” Sverison added.
Mai Rosner, senior campaigner at climate advocacy group Global Witness, said: “A free press and civil society are critical in the fight against climate change. Azerbaijan is trying to silence both – demonstrated most dramatically by the beating and imprisonment of Gubad Ibadoglu, a prominent critic of Azerbaijan’s fossil fuel industry. Authoritarian petrostates cannot be in charge of climate negotiations.
The government of Azerbaijan has been approached for comment.
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