Press Council chairman Vugar Zifaroglu has condemned an attack on APA TV correspondent Sanan Bahramli while he was filming a fire in Baku’s Nizami district. A criminal case has already been opened over the incident.
The assault on APA TV reporter Sanan Bahramli has renewed concerns about journalist safety in Azerbaijan. The attack took place overnight from October 31 to November 1 on Davud Aslan Street, where Bahramli had been sent to cover a fire in an area of stacked plastic and timber materials at a disused meat processing plant.
According to reports, a man who identified himself as a security guard at the site physically assaulted the journalist, insulted him and damaged the company’s filming equipment.
Azerbaijan Press Council chairman Vugar Zifaroglu said gathering and distributing information of public interest is a journalist’s core duty, and that using force or intimidation against this work targets not just one person but society’s right to access information. He stressed that using violence against a journalist, subjecting him to abusive treatment and damaging his equipment is unacceptable.
The Press Council head called on relevant agencies to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and to hold the perpetrator legally accountable. He added that while maintaining public order at the scene within the law is important, this must not be used to create artificial obstacles to journalists’ professional work.
Suspect detained, forensic exam ordered
The press service of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said the investigation established that Heydar Sardarov, who worked as a security guard at the site, inflicted bodily injuries of varying severity on the APA Group employee and obstructed him from carrying out his professional duties. Sardarov has been detained, a criminal case has been opened under the relevant article of the Criminal Code, and a forensic medical examination has been ordered to determine the nature of the injuries.
APA Group said in a statement that this is not the only such incident involving journalists in recent days, noting that employees of REAL TV and Space TV faced similar situations earlier, with those involved in those cases also detained. The organization said it expects law enforcement agencies to conduct a comprehensive investigation and hold the responsible party strictly accountable.
According to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, 500 square meters of a 1,800-square-meter area of stored materials at the Keshla Meat Processing Plant caught fire. The blaze was quickly brought under control and no one was injured.
Read also: Press Council warns of fake WhatsApp accounts impersonating journalists
