Journalists Subjected to Police Pressure in Center of Baku on October 19-20

Baku / 21.10.19 / Turan: During the protests on October 19 and 20 in the center of the capital, more than 10 representatives of various media outlets faced pressure from the police.

Thus, when covering an opposition rally on October 19, correspondents from several media outlets filmed the beating of the opposition leader Ali Karimli, who was physically abused, insulted, and subjected to moral pressure.

A well-known blogger, a former political prisoner, Mehman Huseynov, was detained.

On October 20, correspondents of Radio Azadlig, Meydan TV, and Turan - Sevinj Vagifgyzy, Ramin Deco, Aziz Kerimov, Salima Jalilova, Parvan Bayramov and several other journalists were subjected to physical violence. The police pushed and kicked them, grabbed the cameras from their hands, violated their steps, and broke their cameras. All this was accompanied by abuse and insults.

The police did not limit themselves to pressure on the press and snatched phones from the hands of ordinary citizens, demanding not to shoot or erase the footage.

It got to the point that the police officers standing on the street shouted and scolded those who were filming what was happening on the streets from their balconies.

Plus, in the whole center of Baku the Internet was disconnected and mobile communication was disrupted. This was done in order to exclude the possibility of a live broadcast from the scene and to prevent the correspondents from transmitting the footage to their editorial offices.

An expert in the field of media rights, Alesker Mammadli, commenting on these events, described them as "the introduction of an unspoken emergency."

"The police seriously limited the freedom of movement of citizens by blocking many streets in the center of Baku. Internet providers and mobile operators stopped working for several hours, causing damage to citizens and private business. This is a serious legal violation and every victim can appeal these actions in court, "Mammadli wrote on his Facebook page.

"The city administration restricted the freedom of assembly of citizens, and the police behaved excessively aggressively against peaceful protests, using unnecessarily excessive force.

Tough police actions against politicians, including the Popular Front Party leader Ali Karimli, were disgusting.

As it can be seen from the videos, the police acted rudely against the journalists, despite the fact that they were wearing identification vests and showed official identification cards," Mammadli wrote. -0-