Kenan Aliyev is the Director of Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe's (RFE/RL) Azerbaijani Service, Radio Azadliq, Azerbaijan’s leading source of independent news and information. The award-winning Service is distinguished for its Azerbaijani literature portal, the satire show "250 Plus," and an anti-corruption and investigative reporting project. In 2012, the Service was voted by Azerbaijan's Internet Forum as the country's best news website. In 2009 it won an award from the London-based Association of International Broadcasters (AIB) for its coverage of a controversial constitutional referendum that year. Prior to joining RFE/RL in 2004, Mr. Aliyev worked in Washington, DC for Voice of America (VOA) as a TV and radio broadcaster, covering U.S., regional and international politics and energy policy. He won VOA's Gold Medal Award for professional achievement in 2003. Mr. Aliyev also worked as an interpreter for the U.S. State Department, and lectured on history, religion and politics in the Caucasus region at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. Mr. Aliyev was born in Naxcivan and studied journalism in Baku and Washington, DC. He speaks Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Turkish.