Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is aware of at least 18 cases of journalists being obstructed and sometimes physically attacked in the course of their reporting in Baku since Azerbaijan’s snap parliamentary elections on 9 February, which were marred by fraud. The authorities must prosecute those responsible for the violence, RSF said.
When a sit-in by opposition candidates outside the Central Electoral Commission in Baku was violently dispersed by special forces amid mounting tension on the night of 11 February, some journalists were able to flee but around seven were arrested and beaten.
“I was bundled into a car in which three policemen kept punching me and kicking me,” Basta.info news website editor Mustafa Hajibeyli said in a Facebook post. “My face was covered in blood.” He was released but was told to report to the police yesterday.
As the demonstrators were being taken away in a bus, six women journalists who had been covering the event were beaten by police, sustaining injuries, and their cameras were confiscated.
Further details and source: Reporters Without Borders