The convicted Azerbaijani journalist will be represented by his wife at the Bucerius Prize ceremony

This year's nominees for the Gerd Bucerius Prize for "Free Press of Eastern Europe" awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the development of independent press include two Azerbaijani representatives, the journalists of the Azadlyg (Freedom) and Bizim Yol (Our Path) newspapers.

The prize was founded by the German ZEIT-Stiftung foundation and the Norwegian Freedom of Speech Foundation (Institusjonen Fritt Ord).

By tradition, the editors-in-chief of the prize-winning mass media  are invited to attend the prize presentation ceremony. However, Ganimat Zakhid who is now in prison will be unable to join the ceremony in Oslo.  

For this reason, the organizers have invited the imprisoned journalist's wife, Ayanda Mursalieva, to attend the award ceremony. The Azadlyg newspaper will be also represented by its director Azer Akhmedov and Mirza Sakit (Sakit Zakhidov), a satire poet, who was released last April after spending three years in jail.

The father of Einulla Fatullaev, another imprisoned journalist, Editor-in-Chief of the Realny Azerbaijan (Real Azerbaijan) newspaper also went to Oslo. As a nominee for the award may invite a guest, Natik Javaldy representing the Bizim Yol newspaper decided to invite his imprisoned colleague's father to attend the ceremony. 

Javaldy is known in Azerbaijan as an investigative reporter exposing corruption and bureaucratic arbitrariness.