The speech by PRWB legal expert Anna Melikyan at the OSCE/ODIHR Human Dimension Conference on March 17, 2025, dedicated to the topic: “The Role of the Media in Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises: Addressing International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.”

During hostilities, journalists are witnesses of acts of war, and their work is essential in informing the public but also for those like me and my colleagues working to document violations of IHL and human rights to push for accountability for war crimes.

• During the hostilities launched by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, we documented multiple instances of journalists, local and international, being directly targeted by Azerbaijani armed forces, by drones or GRADs while they were performing their professional activities. Several journalists were injured, some of them badly, and a local fixer was killed. They were there to document consequences of Azerbaijani military attack against civilian population. All of them were clearly identifiable as press, so were their vehicles. In one case, the attack took place at the cathedral in Shushi where journalists went to cover an attack on the cathedral earlier. Once they entered, Azerbaijani military used a double tap drone attack to hit them.  

Any attacks on journalists must be subject to an effective investigation, and parties to the conflict must make sure that their personnel are trained to distinguish journalists as civilians and not to target them.

This was not the case in Azerbaijan where authorities admitted the attacks but instead of refraining from unlawful actions, they bragged that this was in retaliation for accessing the war-torn territory from Armenia, seemingly as a way to discourage international media representatives to independently cover the events. On the other side of the frontline, Azerbaijani authorities allowed access to only selected media representatives in a very tightly control manner, meddled in communication between journalists and ordinary citizens, undermining the freedom of media.

• International media, including the BBC, helped verify videos with war crimes such as executions of residents of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, and execution of Armenian POWs by Azerbaijani servicemen during their attack on Armenia in September 2022. Despite promises for investigation following international outcry, including by ODIHR, Azerbaijani authorities deliberately failed to do so claiming these verified videos were fake news.
• Journalists are not only physically attacked but they increasingly become victims of cyber-attacks. At least several media representatives from Armenia became targets to Pegasus spyware used by Azerbaijan. Evidence suggests that the targeting is related to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pegasus has been used extensively in Azerbaijan to target a wide range of journalists, civil society and political opposition figures.
• The role of media to cover conflict related and politically motivated trials is also instrumental, and their access to public hearings shall not be limited. However, Azerbaijani authorities do not allow access to independent media representatives to cover sham trials against 16 Armenians detained in the context of armed conflict. The coverage from a court room is very restricted, all state-controlled media repeat the same messages after the hearings in line with a reported practice of getting daily instructions from the authorities on what to cover and how. This is coupled with an ongoing intense crackdown on local independent media, arbitrary arrests and fabricated charges against them as well as reducing the presence of international media in an attempt to reduce external scrutiny of human rights violations. Lack of access to independent media undermines access to key information and results in zero trust in capacity of Azerbaijani judiciary to ensure fair trial.
• Another aspect is lack of resources for local media when they find themselves in the midst of armed conflict to provide safety gear, life and health insurance and training. With the recent changes in funding opportunities, lack of resources would be one of the underlining issues.