Soltan Achilova

Gurban Soltan Achilova (; born c. 1949), sometimes spelled Gurbansoltan Achilova, is a Turkmenistani photojournalist. She was a nominee for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2021. She has been reported as the only openly critical journalist in Turkmenistan. Her country is described as an "information black hole", with an evaluated political freedoms index far lower than that of North Korea.

Personal life Achilova was born in 1948, 1949 or 1950. By 1979 she and her husband had four children and the family lived in a house they owned in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

Career While Achilova was out of her house one day in March 2006, workers arrived without notice to demolish her family's home. The police assisted in the family's eviction and the authorities offered no compensation for their loss. She contacted the courts and the chief prosecutor's office, but all she found were similar cases of injustice. She became a journalist, using her camera to document her findings.

She has contributed to Chronicles of Turkmenistan, a media outlet in exile, and is a former correspondent of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Turkmen service, Azatlyk Radiosy. As of 2017, she was Azatlyk Radiosy 's main contributor of photos and media from inside Turkmenistan. That year, she covered the country's preparation for the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. In 2019, she was a contributor to the opposition website Khronika Turkmenistana (hronikatm.com), which was started in 2006.

Achilova has been reported as the only openly critical journalist in Turkmenistan. She operates a web site in a country where access to the internet is restricted. As of 2021, she had 30,000 visits to the site. She reports on the human rights abuses in her country. She says that she has been hoping for improvement for 30 years but it does not get better. She says that people who campaign for human rights are watched and they are subject to not only arrest but pressure is also applied to members of their family.

She was shortlisted for the 2021 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders together with Loujain al-Hathloul from Saudi Arabia and Yu Wensheng from China. That year's award was given to Yu, who was serving a four-year sentence in China. Achilova was the only one of the nominees who was able to address the ceremony, as she sent a pre-recorded video. Achilova could not attend in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and her runner-up award was not collected.

Interactions with authorities In January 2008, Achilova was questioned for two days regarding reports she had written that were "critical of national policy".

In December 2014, Achilova was questioned by police while taking photographs for a story on the government ordering the price of fresh meat be lowered.

In July 2017, Achilova received death threats from a police officer who was tailing her.

In 2019, she was prevented from leaving the country to go to a seminar in Georgia.

In November 2024, authorities attempted to poison Achilova, During this six-day forced hospitalization, she was unable to contact her family.