Two reporters from Yeni Musavat daily – Elmin Badalov and Shahnaz Novruzgizi, were detained by police, Elmin Badalov told Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) today.
. He said that the incident took place in Nizami district, where the police took the journalists to Police Office #25 of the Nizami District Police Department.
He said that the police detained them when they were preparing a report at a site where oppositional meetings can take place, according to the government. “I was preparing a report together with my colleague Shahnaz Novruzgizi. I had a placard labeled with the slogan ‘Free elections,’ and Shahnaz was taking photos at that time. We wanted to learn the people’s reaction to the slogan and mass meetings. The people demonstrated different attitudes. At this time police approached us and said that we didn’t have the right to hold an illegal action,” Badalov noted.
According to Badalov, they wrote an explanation in Operation Commissioner police Major Azer Musayev’s study. The journalists were told that they would be freed after writing an explanation, but later it became clear that the police were not ready to free them. After newspaper leadership’s interference, the employees of Yeni Musavat were freed.
He said that the police detained them when they were preparing a report at a site where oppositional meetings can take place, according to the government. “I was preparing a report together with my colleague Shahnaz Novruzgizi. I had a placard labeled with the slogan ‘Free elections,’ and Shahnaz was taking photos at that time. We wanted to learn the people’s reaction to the slogan and mass meetings. The people demonstrated different attitudes. At this time police approached us and said that we didn’t have the right to hold an illegal action,” Badalov noted.
According to Badalov, they wrote an explanation in Operation Commissioner police Major Azer Musayev’s study. The journalists were told that they would be freed after writing an explanation, but later it became clear that the police were not ready to free them. After newspaper leadership’s interference, the employees of Yeni Musavat were freed.