The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have today condemned the sentencing of Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova to 7.5 years in jail in the capital, Baku, in a case said to be retaliation for exposing state corruption. On 1 September, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes convicted Ismayilova, the award-winning investigative journalist at a closed trial on charges of libel, tax evasion, illegal business activity and abuse of power. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence the reporter to nine years. “We strongly condemn the outrageous sentence handed down to Khadija Ismayilova,” said IFJ…

Update (03/09/2015): the Vice News journalists arrested earlier this week in Turkey’s south-east on charges of having links to a terrorist organisation have been released today. But the journalists’ fixer, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, a journalist and translator who has worked extensively across the Middle East with VICE News, Associated Press, and Al Jazeera, has had his appeal of release rejected.  The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined Vice News today to call on the Turkish authorities for a swift end to this unjust detainment and to grant his immediate release. ———– The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists…