Azerbaijan’s presidency on Thursday vowed to catch those responsible for distributing a covertly filmed sexually explicit video in a bid to blackmail a journalist to stop her high-profile reporting. “The relevant law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan are currently investigating the matter and will do everything possible to identify the people and forces behind this dirty campaign,” the presidential administration said in a statement.
“The Azerbaijani authorities consider interference in the private life of any journalist, regardless of their political position and views, to be unacceptable,” it said. The video posted on the Internet late Tuesday showed sex scenes purportedly involving Khadija Ismayilova of Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani Service, who has won awards for her work exposing official corruption in the oil-rich ex-Soviet state. Its release followed an anonymous letter received by Ismayilova last week threatening to humiliate her if she did not “behave”. The journalist, who has said she will not give in to threats, dismissed the presidency’s statement and blamed the authorities for the blackmail attempt.