Azerbaijan Journalist Appeals To Strasbourg Court

Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist with RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, has complained to the European Court of Human Rights about what she says is a slander campaign conducted against her by the government and the gross violations of her rights.

Ismayilova has asked the court to order the government of Azerbaijan to take action to protect her from violence and threats and to end invasions of her privacy.

Ismaiylova is known for her reporting on government corruption, including reports implicating President Ilham Aliyev in improper financial activities worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

She has been receiving threats, and in early 2012 an explicit video appeared on the Internet containing intimate and illegally obtained images of the journalist.

Ismayilova says the slander campaign is clearly linked to her work as a journalist.