Photo-correspondent of Bloomberg agency Diana Markosian was deported from Azerbaijan at about 5.50pm, reported the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety Chairman Emin Huseynov.
She arrived in Baku on Monday night, and by 15.00 she was still in the transit zone. Markosian has double citizenship, the American and Russian, and she arrived in Baku with a Russian passport. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said that she did not have accreditation.
According to him, previously the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry received the request to accredit a representative of Bloomberg agency Michael Smith. After the request was granted, the Ministry received a letter that Smith will be accompanied by a photographer Dianae Kazarian (in the appeal to the Foreign Ministry the name of the press photographer was noted this way).
The official reply to the Bloomberg agency asked to postpone the visit in order to consider the appeal on Kazarian’s accreditation, because it is impossible to provide security for Kazarian during short period of time. However, Bloomberg did not take into account this formal notification from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, said Polukhov. Currently, Michael Smith is already in Baku, and there are not obstacles for his activity, he added.
In April, 2011, three journalists from Sweden My Rohwedder Street, Charlotta Wijkström and Charlie Laprevote were detained in Azerbaijan and deported a day later.
According to him, previously the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry received the request to accredit a representative of Bloomberg agency Michael Smith. After the request was granted, the Ministry received a letter that Smith will be accompanied by a photographer Dianae Kazarian (in the appeal to the Foreign Ministry the name of the press photographer was noted this way).
The official reply to the Bloomberg agency asked to postpone the visit in order to consider the appeal on Kazarian’s accreditation, because it is impossible to provide security for Kazarian during short period of time. However, Bloomberg did not take into account this formal notification from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, said Polukhov. Currently, Michael Smith is already in Baku, and there are not obstacles for his activity, he added.
In April, 2011, three journalists from Sweden My Rohwedder Street, Charlotta Wijkström and Charlie Laprevote were detained in Azerbaijan and deported a day later.