Azerbaijan State Press

Azerbaijan · Quick Facts SC All conditions met 3 Newspapers, reduced from four in 2025 283t Annual newsprint from the state budget 171/180 RSF 2026 · 23.95 ▼ from 167th Scope An analytical grouping for Azərbaycan, Xalq qəzeti and the Russian-language Bakinskiy Rabochiy. It does not denote a single legal entity or common editorial office, and the three titles are not attached to the same state institution Two branches Azərbaycan is the official newspaper of the Milli Majlis, identified as the legislature’s organ on its masthead. Xalq qəzeti and Bakinskiy Rabochiy are published by separate companies under the President’s Administrative Department 2025 reorganisation Presidential Decree No. 435 of 11 July 2025 created Bakinskiy Rabochiy Newspaper Editorial Office LLC and merged Xalq qəzeti with Respublika into Xalq Newspaper Editorial Office LLC, transferring the predecessors’ rights, obligations and assets Respublika Published its final issue on 17 August 2025, with staff transferred to the reorganised Xalq editorial office. It is no longer carried as an active asset, and its former domain now hosts unrelated material Funding Cabinet Resolution No. 406 of 19 December 2025 provides state-budget-funded newsprint for state orders: about 2.1 million copies and 148 tonnes for Azərbaycan, 1.7 million and 123 tonnes for Xalq qəzeti, and 166,000 and 12 tonnes for Bakinskiy Rabochiy Formal safeguards Articles 5 and 6 of the Law on Media declare the media free, prohibit censorship and unlawful interference and recognise editorial independence. Article 14 requires impartial and objective presentation and prohibits one-sidedness Evidentiary limits The estimate that subsidies exceed half of budgets is March 2024 interview testimony, not a verified financial result. No accounts, allocations or revenue breakdown were identified, and no systematic content analysis was conducted

Sources: Presidential Decree No. 435 of 11 July 2025; Cabinet Resolution No. 406 of 19 December 2025; newspaper mastheads and institutional pages; Modern.az reporting, August 2025; Law on Media 2022; SMM interviews, March 2024; Reporters Without Borders 2026. Classification per the State Media Matrix.

Typology trajectory — Azerbaijan State Press

Azerbaijan · 2022–2026 2022 SC 2023 SC 2024 SC 2025 SC 2026 SC The classification is unchanged. The grouping contracted from four titles to three in August 2025, and the ownership architecture of two of them was reconstituted by presidential decree the previous month. The 2025 reorganisation 11 Jul 2025 Presidential Decree No. 435 creates Bakinskiy Rabochiy Newspaper Editorial Office LLC and merges the Xalq qəzeti and Respublika offices into Xalq Newspaper Editorial Office LLC, both under the President’s Administrative Department, transferring the predecessors’ rights, obligations and assets 17 Aug 2025 Respublika publishes its final issue; its staff transfer to the reorganised Xalq editorial office 19 Dec 2025 Cabinet Resolution No. 406 amends the financial-assistance framework for the three surviving editorial operations, providing state-budget-funded newsprint against state orders The President’s Administrative Department administers the two companies; the Presidential Administration supervised implementation of the reorganisation. The two bodies are distinct. Formal safeguards Articles 5 and 6 of the Law on Media, in force since February 2022, declare the media free, prohibit state censorship and unlawful interference, describe media activity as based on creative and editorial independence, and recognise journalists’ right to independence. Article 14 requires facts and events to be presented impartially and objectively and prohibits one-sidedness. What they do not reach No independent governing body, protected editorial appointment process or external mechanism capable of enforcing editorial independence against the state proprietors. The appointment procedures for the editors of Azərbaycan and Xalq qəzeti remain to be established precisely. Ownership Parliament and presidency Editorial Aligned with proprietors Funding Newsprint in kind Two evidentiary limits are recorded. The estimate that public subsidies exceed half of the newspapers’ budgets is March 2024 interview testimony rather than an independently verified financial result, and no accounts, complete allocations or revenue breakdown were identified. State Media Monitor also conducted no systematic content analysis for this update, so the editorial finding rests on interview evidence and the publications’ own institutional presentation.

Sources: Presidential Decree No. 435 of 2025; Cabinet Resolution No. 406 of 2025; newspaper mastheads and institutional pages; Law on Media 2022; SMM interviews, March 2024. SC = State-Controlled Media, per the State Media Matrix.

State Media Monitor uses Azerbaijan State Press as an analytical grouping for three active state-owned newspapers: Azərbaycan, the official newspaper of the Milli Majlis; Xalq qəzeti; and the Russian-language Bakinskiy Rabochiy. The grouping does not denote a single legal entity or common editorial office. A fourth title previously mapped, Respublika, ceased publication in August 2025 following a state-directed reorganisation of the newspaper sector.

Media assets

Newspapers: Azərbaycan, Xalq qəzeti and Bakinskiy Rabochiy

Azərbaycan describes itself in its current masthead as the organ of the Milli Majlis and an official state newspaper.

Respublika published its final issue on 17 August 2025. Its staff were transferred to the newly reorganised Xalq editorial office, according to its former editor-in-chief. The title is therefore not carried forward as an active media asset, and its former website is not linked because the domain now carries unrelated material.

Ownership and governance

The three newspapers are state-owned, but they are not attached to the same state institution.

Azərbaycan is the official newspaper of the Milli Majlis, Azerbaijan’s parliament. Its current masthead expressly identifies it as the legislature’s organ.

The other titles were reorganised under Presidential Decree No. 435 of 11 July 2025. The decree created the Bakinskiy Rabochiy Newspaper Editorial Office LLC under the Administrative Department of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and merged the editorial offices of Xalq qəzeti and Respublika into the separate Xalq Newspaper Editorial Office LLC, also under the President’s Administrative Department. It transferred the rights, obligations and assets of the predecessor editorial offices to the new companies, and assigned supervision of implementation to the Presidential Administration.

The current masthead of Xalq qəzeti identifies the President’s Administrative Department. Bakinskiy Rabochiy identifies Ilgar Guseynov as editor-in-chief on its institutional page.

Source of funding and budget

Direct public support is documented.

Cabinet Resolution No. 406 of 19 December 2025 amended the existing financial-assistance framework following the newspaper reorganisation. It applies to the Azərbaycan editorial office, Xalq Newspaper Editorial Office LLC and Bakinskiy Rabochiy Newspaper Editorial Office LLC, and provides state-budget-funded newsprint for the fulfilment of state orders.

The accompanying annual parameters provide for approximately 2.1 million copies and 148 tonnes of newsprint for Azərbaycan; 1.7 million copies and 123 tonnes for Xalq qəzeti; and 166,000 copies and 12 tonnes for Bakinskiy Rabochiy.

These arrangements confirm direct state financing but do not disclose the full monetary value of the assistance or its share of each publication’s total income.

Journalists interviewed by State Media Monitor in March 2024 estimated that public subsidies accounted for more than half of the newspapers’ budgets. Advertising and other commercial income also exist.

Editorial independence

The publications’ editorial agendas are closely aligned with the state institutions that own and administer them. Journalists interviewed by State Media Monitor in March 2024 described the newspapers as consistently reflecting President Ilham Aliyev’s political line and providing little space for dissenting positions.

Current institutional material reinforces that assessment. Azərbaycan presents itself as the official newspaper of the Milli Majlis, while its current front-page material prominently promotes the President and government policy. Xalq qəzeti operates under the President’s Administrative Department and functions extensively as a record of official activity and documents. Bakinskiy Rabochiy states that it devotes particular attention to the reforms conducted under President Aliyev.

These observations support an editorial-alignment finding, but State Media Monitor did not conduct a systematic content analysis for this update.

Formal legal safeguards nevertheless exist. Articles 5 and 6 of Azerbaijan’s Law on Media, in force since February 2022, declare the media free, prohibit state censorship and unlawful interference, describe media activity as based on creative and editorial independence, and recognise journalists’ right to independence. Article 14 also requires facts and events to be presented impartially and objectively and prohibits one-sidedness.

Those provisions do not create structural autonomy for the mapped newspapers. State Media Monitor identified no independent governing body, protected editorial appointment process or external mechanism capable of enforcing editorial independence against the state proprietors.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published policy governing generative artificial intelligence, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure at any of the three newspapers, and could not establish the extent of adoption in production.

Azerbaijan adopted an Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2025 to 2028 in March 2025. Legislation enacted in April 2026 requires publicly displayed photographs, video and audio produced using artificial intelligence to carry clear labelling and provides administrative penalties for knowing dissemination without the required indication. It does not establish a separate obligation to label every text or every item merely assisted by AI.

Classification rationale

Azerbaijan State Press remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is state-owned and state-governed. Azərbaycan is the official newspaper of the Milli Majlis. Xalq qəzeti and Bakinskiy Rabochiy are published by separate state-established companies under the President’s Administrative Department. No independent supervisory body or protected editorial appointment procedure was identified.

It is publicly financed. Cabinet Resolution No. 406 confirms direct financial assistance and state-budget-funded newsprint for all three editorial operations. Interview evidence describes state funding as constituting more than half of their budgets, although no accounts or complete revenue breakdown were identified.

Its editorial agenda is aligned with the state. Interview evidence and the publications’ own institutional presentation indicate systematic emphasis on presidential, parliamentary and government positions. Their formal legal rights to editorial independence are not supported by arm’s-length governance or an independent enforcement mechanism.

September 2026