Zerkalo newspaper has left the founders board of the Press Council – Elchin Shikhli, editor-in-chief of the newspaper told the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety today (May20).
“We submitted a resignation from the board a week ago. The reason of our resignation was the Council’s indifference to the plight of the newspaper. The Council did not show any reaction when our correspondent Rauf Mirkadirov was arrested, or to the suspension of our daily publication. We saw that it’s no use to be part of this body and left it”, said the editor-in-chief.
Note that Zerkalo commentator Rauf Mirkadirov was arrested on April 19, on charge of espionage. The office of the newspaper was searched in connection with the criminal case opened against him and the computer of the editor-in-chief, which contained all archives of the paper, was seized. The financial problems forced Zerkalo to shift from daily publication to monthly.