Azerbaijan: Journalists Fatime Mövlamli, Sevinj Sadygova Beaten, Detained While Covering Protest in Baku
Location: Azerbaijan, Baku
Date: February 16, 2022
Journalists Fatima Mövlamli, Sevinj Sadygova and Teymur Karimov were forcibly taken by the police covering a protest in the capital of Azerbaijan. Law enforcement officials physically attacked the journalists and shifted them to a police station, where they were beaten and questioned for over four hours. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) condemns the brutal treatment of the journalists and calls on the authorities to immediately investigate and take action against the police brutality recorded in video footage published online.
Fatima, Sevinj and their colleague Karimov were forcibly knocked to the ground by the police during a peaceful demonstration in Baku by mothers demanding their sons killed in the recent war with Armenia be officially recognized as martyrs. The journalists were reportedly prevented from filming the protest and shifted to a police station, where they were accused of filming the administration headquarters, which the police claimed was a protected building. The reporters maintain that the protest was several streets away from the said building when they were taken into custody.
Fatima is a reporter for the independent news site Azadliq while Sevinj works for the news website Azel.tv. Video footage published by Taymur, chief editor at the independent YouTube-based outlet Kanal1, shows the police’s physical violations against the journalists as they are shoved into a police van.
At the police station, the journalists were subjected to further police brutality and physically and verbally abused. The women journalists were kicked, beaten and called “wh*res”. After their release, Fatima, whose employer news outlet Azadliq has been blocked in the country since 2017, took to Meta (Facebook) to share their ordeal.
Recounting the incident, she wrote that police officers said “Wh*re, we are tired of you. You have strangled us,” and that she should consider her “survival as such a miracle”. She added “the police attacked” her and asked her to hand them her phone and “delete the recording, etc”.
“As soon as I entered the 9th police station of Sabail district, two police officers, mainly an employee named Elshan, knocked me to the ground and kicked me at the entrance,” wrote Fatima. “After a short beating, the deputy head of the unit, Mushfig Gozalov, finally remembered that he had to intervene.”
The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the police’s brutal treatment of Fatima Mövlamli, Sevinj Sadygova and Teymur Karimov. We demand an immediate investigation into the actions of the police and demand action against responsible officers. Fatima, whose employer outlet reports frequently on the repression of political activists by the authorities, has been detained more than 10 times, according to local news reports. We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to respect the rights of the press and allow journalists to report freely.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
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