YouTube’s copyright rules are being abused by the Azerbaijan government in an attempt to censor content from the global video-sharing site according to one of the country’s few independent news services.

The Meydan TV network says four of its video reports, which highlighted allegations of official corruption, were removed on the grounds that they infringed YouTube’s copyright rules. And under the Google-owned giant’s terms, this brought the channel close to being taken off the site altogether.

YouTube is one of the few remaining mediums Meydan TV has for reaching audiences in Azerbaijan. The government blocked its website last year, and it has also jailed the network’s journalists.

It produces dozens of videos about a wide range of issues. But the channel’s director, Emin Milli, says it was just four pieces that were targeted — which included reports on the financial dealings of the country’s autocratic president Ilham Aliyev and his family, the state oil company and allegations of police abuses. “These were not just some random videos,” he says. (Disclosure: Meydan TV is a member of Coda’s network of editorial partners). And Milli is adamant that the network either owned all the footage itself, or had the rights to use it.