BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 3. Azerbaijan’s Media Development Agency has issued a statement accusing a number of Western media outlets of spreading misleading and unsubstantiated information about the country as part of what it described as a coordinated disinformation campaign.
According to the agency, Poland-based Nexta published information on September 2, 2026, concerning a fire near the village of Nizami in Azerbaijan’s Goranboy district. The agency said the report was based on “subjective assumptions”, attempted to present the incident in the context of interstate political relations and was aimed at misleading public opinion.
The agency said its analysis suggested that such reports were part of a centrally coordinated hybrid information campaign. It accused Western media outlets, which frequently raise concerns about hybrid warfare and foreign interference in their own information environments, of themselves conducting a disinformation campaign against Azerbaijan.
The statement argued that the normalisation of relations between neighbouring countries in the region, as well as greater stability and prosperity, does not serve the interests of certain groups. According to the agency, this has resulted in an intensification of what it described as attempts to contaminate Azerbaijan’s information space and create artificial public anxiety.
The Media Development Agency said its monitoring had identified what it described as a recent pattern of inaccurate reporting about Azerbaijan by several Western media organisations.
The statement specifically named British newspapers The Independent and The Guardian, the BBC, US broadcaster CNN, France’s Le Monde and Poland’s TVP among media outlets whose coverage the agency characterised as one-sided and based on unfounded assertions.
According to the agency, such reports form part of an information campaign targeting Azerbaijan’s international image. It said the dissemination of similar claims and assumptions should be regarded as a manifestation of information manipulation.
The Media Development Agency said it would continue taking measures to investigate such cases and counter what it considers attempts at disinformation aimed at Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, domestic and foreign policy, and international reputation.
