European Friends of Armenia: Moldova's journalist was dismissed under Baku's pressure for visiting Artsakh

 Azerbaijan once again violates fundamental human rights on state level hindering free movement of European journalists and freedom of speech, the statement of the European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) received by ArmInfo reads. 

"The matter concerns the statement made by the Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman that journalist from Moldova's TV7 channel Liuba Maxim was fired because she had visited Nagorno Karabakh in May this year and made a journalistic story there.  EuFoA expresses concern related to this incident and urges international law enforcement organizations to take corresponding measures", the statement of the organization reads.

At the same time EuFoA considers necessary to reveal the details of the incident. The organization noted that Moldova's shooting team from TV7 channel visited Nagorno Karabakh by the EuFoA's invitation and upon the agreement of the channel's heads.

EuFoA based on its policy and charter has not made any direct or indirect impact on preparation of program during the visit. It is concerning that the TV channel who had confirmed the visit and the place of visit dismissed the journalist by making a deal with Azerbaijan's criminal regime putting to question freedom of press in Moldova, the statement reads. 

EuFoA intends to present this incident in the high international platforms and in law enforcement structures in order to restore violated rights of the journalists and to achieve imposing sanctions against criminal Azerbaijani regime", the organization stresses. 

To recall, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told APA on June 14 that Azerbaijan's Embassy in Moldova has looked into reports of a group of reporters from Moldova's TV7 channel traveling to Nagorno Karabakh and preparing a report there. He said the embassy has contacted the Moldovan TV channel over the matter."The Moldovan TV channel then sent a letter to the Azerbaijani embassy in Moldova, extending apology for the situation. The TV channel said the report has not been aired live and has only been published on video hosting for internal use. Due to disagreement between the author's view and the channel's editorial policy, the channel concluded that the report should not be aired at all," Hajiyev noted.  To recall, European Friends of Armenia hosted 15 journalists of foreign mass media who arrived in Armenia on May 7-15 and visited Karabakh in order to cover Azerbaijani aggression in early April and the current situation. The group consisted of journalists from Belgium, Italy, UK, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and the US.