Up to one hundred taxi drivers and residents today protested in a Lankaran suburb against a rise in petrol price. Several journalists were detained by the police while covering the action, the chief editor of “Janub Khabarlari” (South News) newspaper, Zahir Amanov told IRFS.
According to Amanov, one of the detained journalists was a correspondent of the “South News” newspaper.
“Two or three journalists were detained during the protest, one of whom was our correspondent. They were detained together with a group of protesters. After talking to journalists, the police released them,” said Amanov.
Correspondent of “Janub Khabarlari” newspaper, Elvin Rahimli told IRFS that the police detained him together with another person, who had a camera, but was not a journalist.
“When I was detained, I told the police that I was a journalist and gave them the contacts of our editorial office. After talking to our editor, they apologized and released me,” said Rahimli.
According to Rahimli, the protest of taxi drivers and residents was not well-coordinated and immediately dispersed by the police.
The reason for objections was the recent increase in the price of oil products by the Tariff Council.