28 Mar 2024
Friday 26 December 2014 - 20:52
Story Code : 140324

Azerbaijan police attack Radio Liberty office in Baku

Azerbaijan police attack Radio Liberty office in Baku
[caption id="attachment_140329" align="alignright" width="191"] This file photo shows plainclothes police officers detaining a journalist during a protest in Baku, Azerbaijan.[/caption]
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) says police officers and prosecutors in the Republic of Azerbaijan have raided the office of its local service in the capital, Baku.
Kenan Aliyev, the director of RFE/RLs local service in Baku, said Azeri prosecutors accompanied by armed police forces combed the office of the radio station, known as Radio Azadliq in Azerbaijan, saying they have a court order to shut down the office.

He added that the equipment and computers in the office were confiscated, while journalists working for the radio station were forced out of the office. Telephone and Internet lines are down.

Aliyev denounced the attack as part of an overall crackdown on free media in Azerbaijan.

The move came after the country arrested Khadija Ismayilova, a prominent investigative journalist with Radio Azadliq, in early December. Ismayilova, who has frequently revealed the business dealings of senior politicians in Azerbaijan, has been placed in pre-trial detention for two months.

Following her detention, rights groups censured the move, with Amnesty International denouncing it as a move to silence independent media voices in the country.

John Dalhuisen, the Europe and Central Asia Program director at Amnesty International, said authorities in Azerbaijan must stop this harassment of journalists just for doing their jobs.

Earlier this month, President Ilham Aliyevs chief of staff, Ramiz Mehdiev, accused Radio Azadliqs journalists of treason and called them a fifth column working for foreign security services.

Dissent in the energy-rich Caspian Sea country often receives a tough response from the government, with rights groups accusing Baku of launching a crackdown on opponents since Aliyev's election to a third term in 2013.

Many activists and independent journalists have been put behind bars in Azerbaijan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

By Press TV

 

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