Azerbaijan Accuses Western Media Of Disinformation Campaign Over Goranboy Fire

Azerbaijan's Media Development Agency has accused the Poland-based Nexta channel of spreading misleading information about a fire near the village of Nizami in the Goranboy district, saying the report sought to portray the incident through the prism of interstate political relations and mislead public opinion.

The Agency described the report as part of what it called a broader hybrid information campaign against Azerbaijan, alleging that a number of Western media outlets have recently circulated one-sided and unfounded claims targeting the country's international reputation.

The full press release reads:

The Poland-based Nexta channel has published information concerning the fire that occurred on 2 September 2026 near the village of Nizami in Azerbaijan's Goranboy district. The report was based on subjective assumptions, sought to present the incident against the backdrop of interstate political relations and was aimed at misleading public opinion.

Analysis indicates that these developments are part of a hybrid information campaign that appears to be coordinated from a single centre. Western media outlets, which routinely accuse forces outside their own information environment of engaging in hybrid warfare, are themselves conducting a disinformation campaign against Azerbaijan.

This fact once again demonstrates that, as the normalisation of relations between neighbouring states in the region and the strengthening of stability and prosperity do not serve the interests of certain circles, conventional forms of disinformation aimed at contaminating Azerbaijan's information space and creating artificial alarm within society have intensified.

Monitoring and analysis of the broader information environment indicate that, in recent periods, a campaign to disseminate inaccurate information targeting Azerbaijan has been observed across a number of Western media outlets. In particular, the overtly one-sided approaches and unfounded assumptions contained in materials published by the British newspapers The Independent and The Guardian, the BBC, the US broadcaster CNN, France's Le Monde, Poland's TVP and other media resources form part of an information attack targeting Azerbaijan's international reputation.

The dissemination of such assumptions and claims should be regarded as an overt manifestation of information manipulation.

The Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan will continue to take the necessary measures to investigate such cases aimed at undermining Azerbaijan's sovereignty, domestic and foreign policy, as well as its international reputation, and to prevent attempts to spread disinformation.

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