Law enforcers disrupt journalists' protest in Baku

Policemen have pushed the employees of the edition "Futbol+", who protested against the stop of governmental financing, away from the presidential Administration. Three journalists, who wanted to cover the action of their colleagues, said they were detained and spent three hours at the police station.

Aitadj Akhmedova, an employee of the online media "Meydan TV", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had planned to make a report about the protest action of the "Futbol+" colleagues, for which she came today to the building of the presidential Administration. "I even didn't start filming, when policemen grabbed me, forced me into a car and brought to the police station," she said.

The detained journalists Fargan Novruzov and Tyurkyan Bashiri were brought to the same police station, Ms Akhmedova has added. "We were told that in this territory no more filming would be allowed without an official permit. Those who broke the ban would be detained and brought to the police station. They said that it was an instruction from above. The police boss said: 'Everybody comes there, oppose our president by chanting 'resign'; and all this damages the image of our state'," Aitadj Akhmedova quoted the police boss as saying.

Ms Akhmedova has added that all the three detainees had to stay for three hours at the station.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 23, 2019 at 10:21 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.