BAKU: Azerbaijan has frozen the bank accounts of the country’s only independent news agency, its director said on Friday, in a step that could shutter the outlet.
The Turan agency is a rare voice of dissent in the tightly-controlled Caspian Sea nation and has not shied away from critical reporting of the government of strongman leader Ilham Aliyev.
Turan’s director Mehman Aliyev said the move was part of a criminal probe into an alleged $22,000 in unpaid taxes, a charge he said was false.