Step inside Sevinj Vagifgizi’s prison cell: RSF recreates detention conditions of journalists detained in Azerbaijan

On Wednesday 28 January, a container barely four square metres large - the same size as the solitary confinement cells of jailed Azerbaijani journalists - appeared at Place de la Republique, in the heart of Paris. Like the real prison cells, which some journalists have been trapped in for years, the container's filthy interior - inmates are not allowed to clean their cells - contains a camp bed and insects, which journalist Elnara Gasimova refers to as "my involuntary friends." Visitors are invited to explore the cell by torchlight as an immersive soundscape plays, giving them a taste of the harsh reality lived by these wrongly detained news professionals.

During her 800 days in prison, Sevinj Vagifgizi, editor-in-chief of the independent investigative outlet Abzas Media, has been mistreated by prison staff, denied sufficient access to food and water and her personal belongings have been withheld. Last September, she was suddenly transferred to a far-away prison to isolate her from her loved ones even more. The corruption she exposes in her investigations runs deep in Azerbaijan and is reflected in the country's prison conditions: journalist Alesker Mammadli, who is behind bars and seriously ill, is being denied medical care, and independent reporter Nargiz Absalamovahas reported that doctors sometimes demand several times the usual price for medicine and treatment.

Behind bars, Sevinj Vagifgizi and other journalists nevertheless persevere with their work, writing about their detention conditions and those of their fellow prisoners. In a letter, Nargiz Absalamova writes: "Hot water is provided only twice a week for two to three hours. Cold water is available twice a day - one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening." This commitment to informing the public results in "sanctions" from prison staff. Contact with the outside world is severely restricted and provided on the condition that prisoners do not write about prison life is - something that is particularly trying for news professionals. "Faced with the information blackout in prison, I try not to lose my sense of reality," writes Ulviyya Ali, a former contributor to Voice of America(VOA).

A media outlet exposing corruption

Sevinj Vagifgizi is editor-in-chief of the independent investigative outlet Abzas Media, which reports mainly on corruption within the political elite. The newsroom has, for example, uncovered several corruption scandals linked to reconstruction projects in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as well as the opaque allocation of funds benefiting the president's family and Turkish business partners. For years, the investigative journalist's commitment to the right to information has exposed her to continuous repression: a travel ban, police violence, arrests, threats and obstacles to her work. Even when she was temporarily in exile in Berlin in 2021, where she benefitted from an RSF fellowship, she was surveilled by Azerbaijani intelligence services using Pegasus spyware. In November 2025, she was awarded the RSF Press Freedom Prizein the courage category.

Nine years in prison for informing the public

After being arrested on 21 November 2023, Sevinj Vagifgizi was sentencedto nine years in prison on charges of "foreign currency smuggling". Five other members of Abzas Media's editorial team were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to nine years following an unfair trial in which their fundamental rights were violated. Similar proceedings are targeting journalists from Toplum TV, Meydan TVand other independent media outlets.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Azerbaijan - an authoritarian petrostate - has become a key strategic energy partner for the European Union. Fossil fuel deliveries are set to increase significantly by 2027, despite the massive repression carried out by the regime against press freedom and civil society. A restrictive media law adopted in 2022is notably being usedto censor all voices critical of the regime and make media funding considerably more difficult. Access to international media outlets such as BBC News Azerbaijaniis also being restricted, making it almost impossible to obtain independent information in and about Azerbaijan.