On June 22, journalist Nargiz Absalamova was subjected to police violence while carrying on her professional duties.
The journalist told Meydan TV that the incident took place near the Koroglu metro station.
She first saw several women and men arguing with police in the area and approached them. As the journalist saw that the police wanted to take some of the people to the police department, she started filming and was beaten:
“I asked the people what had happened and they said that we are being punished for defending God. I decide to start filming what was happening. One of the policemen approached me and told me not to shoot indoors. He did it in a very rude way”, she explains.
Absalamova says that she did not shoot inside the subway and there was no ban on filming in the area she filmed, as it is in some parts of the city.
The journalist narrates that the police officer tried, first, to take her phone claiming she was not a journalist. When she showed him her press card, he then confiscated it.
Absalmova adds that “he [the police officer] tried to take me to the police station in the subway, but I didn’t go. He spoke very rudely and shouted at me. I left the area as soon as he was distracted and, although they came after me, they could not reach me”.
She later contacted Elshad Hajiyev, head of the media and public relations department of the Interior Ministry’s Press Service, and informed him about the incident. He explained that in 40 minutes the journalist could take the card from the police station near the metro station Nizami. Absalmova went there, only to discovered that they had destroyed it.
It was not possible to get an answer from the Interior Ministry to the question of whether action will be taken against the police officer who abused the journalist, why the police took the journalist’s card and invalidated it.
