Watchdog

The U.S. National Press Club presented its highest press freedom prize to jailed Azeri investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova on July 29.

Ismayilova, who is a contributor to RFE/RL, has been held in pretrial detention in Baku for 234 days on charges many observers say were motivated by her investigations into high-level corruption involving Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

At a first hearing in Ismayilova's case on July 24, an Azerbaijani judge rejected motions to dismiss charges of tax evasion and embezzlement and grant Ismayilova house arrest as a substitute for pretrial detention. Ismayilova faces a possible prison sentence of 19 years.

“Khadija is in prison because of her journalism," said RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic, who accepted the award on Ismayilova’s behalf.

"This award is an acknowledgement of her courage and her convictions, but it is also a call to all of us here tonight to condemn her imprisonment and demand her freedom.”

Other jailed reporters receiving the club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award this year were Syrian correspondent Austin Tice and Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post's Tehran correspondent.

The Kremlin has defended its decision to designate a U.S.-funded pro-democracy group in Russia as "undesirable," paving the way for the group to be banned from Russia.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), funded largely by the U.S. Congress, was declared "undesirable" on July 28 under a law that Moscow says is needed to prevent foreign organizations from being used to undermine Russian security.

Critics say the law stifles civil society under President Vladimir Putin.

The prosecutors accused the NED of using "Russian commercial and nongovernmental organizations" to organize "political actions with the goal of influencing authorities' decision-making," delegitimizing local elections and "discrediting" the Russian armed forces.

The NED responded in a statement saying: "This law, as well as its predecessors, contravenes Russia's own constitution as well as numerous international laws and treaties. The true intent of these laws is to intimidate and isolate Russian citizens."

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 29 that "it would be wrong to say citizens' rights are violated."

"Banning the activities of one or more organizations won't mean that citizens' access to democracy groups is limited," he said.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, Reuters, and AP