Journalists endure harassment, beatings and closures of their news media outlets. According to representatives of the station, the confiscation was ordered by Husein Huseynov, head of Azerbaijan's Motor Transport Agency and director of the state-supported LTV station. The officials, of course, would be the ones to say what material is deemed injurious to the state or pornographic. This sweeping provision means that the government will decide who may work as a journalist, and stands ready to revoke accreditation if it dislikes what that journalist writes or broadcasts. These charges appear to represent efforts to prevent legitimate journalistic questions and comment on the work of government authorities.
Turkey is the country with the second most journalists in jail, after China.
Most of these detentions are of journalists who dared to report or opine about Kurdish issues in Turkey. Under his authority, Russian officials have sharply stepped up efforts to control the media and to punish those journalists who attempt to get the news anyway. Particularly in relation to coverage of the war in Chechnya, Moscow has blocked travel and access to the area. In another, police attempted to force investigative reporter Aleksandr Khinshtein to submit to a psychiatric examination. The journalist was accused of concealing a psychiatric disorder when he applied for a driver's license.