On August 28th, Azadliq newspaper announced that it would be unable to produce an issue for the following day (August 29th).
The newspaper cited financial reasons, and difficulties covering the cost of printing and distributing the newspaper.
Azadliq has been repeatedly threatened with closure by the state – owned, “Azerbaijan” printing house for outstanding debt, and has faced other forms of pressure from the government.
Rahim Hajiyev, the main editor of the paper, told
Azadliq Radio
said that even though there would be no print copy of the paper on the 29th, the site will continue to
publish new material online.
Azadliq was founded in December of 1989, and has remained one of the only surviving independent media outlets in Azerbaijan. Published 6 times a week, the paper has a daily circulation of around 6,000 copies. Its political orientation is tightly connected to that of the opposition party – the Azerbaijani Popular Front.
