"Formula 1" organizers refused to accredit "Turan agency" photojournalist

The operating company "Baku City Circut" refused to accredit Aziz Kerimov, a photojournalist of "Turan agency", to the upcoming Formula 1 race on September 13-15.

The official response of the organizers says: “Your application for accreditation to the "Azerbaijan Grand Prix Formula 1 Qatar Airways 2024" has been considered by the relevant institutions. According to the results of a comprehensive assessment, your candidacy cannot fully meet the relevant requirements”.

The response does not say what requirements we are talking about, who are the “relevant institutions” and “comprehensive assessment”.

An employee of "Baku City Circut" told our photojournalist in a private conversation that someone upstairs was not satisfied with "Turan"s publications on the topic of "Formula 1" races and the allegedly low traffic to our agency's website.

It is noteworthy that accreditation for the race was provided to photo correspondents of a number of little-known websites and all pro-government media.

As for our photojournalist, Aziz Kerimov is the only photojournalist from Azerbaijan who was awarded the prestigious international prize of "Gerd Bucerius Foundation" and "Media-Hub" project of the European Union.

His unique works of the war in Ukraine, war in Karabakh, earthquake in Turkey were published by such world agencies as "Associated Press", "Financial Times", "BBC", "DW", "Guardian", "New York Times", "Forbes", "Reuters",and many others.

As a reminder, Aziz Kerimov has successfully covered all previous Formula 1 races, and his many photographic works have been published by such a world leader as "Getty Image". And the photo shoots on Turan website about the races had thousands of views. Moreover, the organizers of previous races have repeatedly expressed their gratitude to our photojournalist for his professionalism.