On March 28th Yeni Musavat newspaper’s correspondent in Balaken region Akif Mammadli was summoned to the Department on Struggle against Illegal Drugs of Balaken Regional Police Office.
The editor-in-chief of the newspaper Rauf Arifoglu reported about this to the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) today (on March 30th).
According to the editor-in-chief, Mammadli was summoned at 9:00 am and there was a conversation between him and police officers:
“Our correspondent Akif Mammadli worked on the problems that concerned the people and wrote that the spread of the illegal drugs in Balaken has reached a risky level. Police Officer Mahyaddin Musayev threatened our journalist and demanded him to stop writing about it” said Rauf Arifoglu. He condemned the action of the police against their correspondent and said that the local authorities would be responsible if anything wrong happens to Akif Mammadli.
To note, Yeni Musavat newspaper which has been published since 1989 is one of the most widely published newspapers of Azerbaijan.