The British Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday said that a decision by Azerbaijan to shutter the broadcaster’s office in Baku is a “restrictive measure against press freedom.”
In a statement, the BBC said it had made the “reluctant decision” to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal instruction from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry. The broadcaster emphasized that it has not received any written document from official Baku.
“We 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,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement.
The suspension comes after Azerbaijani state-run media last week reported that the Azerbaijani government wanted to reduce the number of BBC staff working in the country to one.
The BBC News Azerbaijan service has been operating in the country since 1994, providing what the broadcaster dubbed “unbiased coverage and a balanced view of the world – first through radio broadcasting and then through digital platforms.” The company claimed that service has an average weekly readership of 1 million, adding that “the number of readers continues to grow.
