Azerbaijani journalist claims being detained during protest rally

Law enforcers did not let Tapdyg Farkhadoglu, a correspondent of the Voice of America (VOA), to cover a protest rally in Baku, and after his detention, he was advised against shooting any more "against statehood," the journalist himself reported. His colleagues treated the incident as pressure on freedom of speech.

According to Tapdyg Farkhadoglu, the incident has occurred this morning in Baku near the building of the General's Prosecutor Office's Department for Investigation of Grave Crimes, when the journalist was covering a protest rally organized by mothers of persons sentenced in the case on riots in Ganja.

"When I approached the building of the Prosecutor's Office, located near the train station, there were several women. When they saw me with my camera, the women came up and began to talk about their protest action. Several policemen came up and demanded from me to stop filming. When I told them I was carrying out my legitimate professional activities, they pulled a camera and a microphone from my hands and took me to a nearby police station. They seized my mobile phone there and removed a memory card from my camera," Tapdyg Farkhadoglu (Guliev) told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"After half an hour they told me that their chief let me go home, but ordered me to no longer shoot 'against statehood'," Tapdyg Farkhadoglu said.

Mekhman Guseinov, the chairman of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), treated the detention of Tapdyg Farkhadoglu as pressure on freedom of speech. "Journalists have the right to cover any protest rallies and to shoot them. And obstructing the professional activities of a journalist is a criminal offense. The incident should be investigated," Mekhman Guseinov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 23, 2019 at 02:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.