The BBC said in a statement on Thursday that it had made the “reluctant decision” to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The corporation added that it “deeply” regrets “this restrictive move against press freedom”.

State-controlled media has reported that the government wanted to reduce the number of BBC staff working in the country to one.

The BBC says its team of journalists in Baku have suspended their journalistic activities, while it seeks clarification on the instruction, but that it remains committed to continuing to report in the Azerbaijani language.

“We deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom, which will hinder our ability to report to and from Azerbaijan for our audiences inside and outside the country,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement.

The BBC has received nothing in writing from the Azerbaijani government and has sought clarification via a number of channels.

Azerbaijan’s ministry of foreign affairs has also not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

BBC News Azerbaijani reaches on average one million people every week and its audience has been increasing.

It has operated in Azerbaijan since 1994, providing impartial news and information, initially via radio broadcasts and later across a range of digital platforms.

Duncan Bartlett, 52, was jailed at Wood Green Crown Court in north London after admitting paying money to watch live streams of children being sexually exploited.

He had pleaded guilty to 35 offences at an earlier hearing on 30 August.

The Metropolitan Police said detectives seized electronic devices from Bartlett and recovered nearly 6,000 indecent images of children.

They also found evidence he made payments to people in the Philippines who would arrange live films of children being sexually exploited for Bartlett to watch.

Bartlett – who worked as a BBC journalist for 14 years until 2015 — was arrested in September 2021.

He spent time as a correspondent in Tokyo and presented “World Business Report” on the BBC World Service.Bartlett, from central London, continued working as a researcher and expert in China at London’s SOAS university until after his guilty plea.

He appears not to have told his employer about his offending and the university did not discover the details of the case until today.

A spokeswoman for SOAS confirmed Bartlett was a research associate and contractor at the London university’s China Institute between 1 January 2021 and 30 September 2024.

She said: “Although not a permanent member of staff or in a student-facing role, he was paid as a contractor to produce a series of podcasts about China, producing his last edition in September 2024.

“Neither SOAS nor the SOAS China Institute were aware of any legal proceedings before we were contacted by the media about this case today.”