The Azerbaijani Government Used Every Possible Way to Silence This Journalist. It Didn't Work.

This is an interview with Khadija Ismaylova, who is an investigative journalist from Azerbaijan. For several years, she published stories containing some pretty serious accusations against her government. She has made herself quite a few powerful enemies -- and eventually,  a sex video of her was uploaded on the internet. In a conservative Muslim country like Azerbaijan, this is not a mere embarrassment: a video like this damages the reputation of a whole family, and it is up to the family to solve this problem. At some point, she tells the BBC, her brother turned up at her doorstep clutching a knife -- he never did any damage, they talked it over, but he confessed that he was feeling such intense pressure to do something, that he acted irrationally. When the sex tape didn't work, the government threw Khadija into prison, on a fabricated charge. She got out but is currently forbidden to leave the country.Stories like this are not uncommon around the world: journalists are constantly intimidated, attacked, and incarcerated illegally. And female journalists, especially those working in more conservative societies, are even more vulnerable than their male peers.