The Albanian police have been accused of seizing a photojournalists camera and deleting photos taken of foreign football fans clashing with the authorities on Tuesday night.
Photojournalist Gent Shkullaku, owner of the Light Studio Agency, was on the ground photographing a scuffle between Itallian and Dutch football fans and the Albanian police. The police stopped him, forcibly took his camera and told him to delete the photos he had taken.
“I was photographing when the police stopped me and told me ‘it is not allowed, they are tarnishing the image of Albania”, Shkullaku told BIRN.
He explained that they took the camera from his hands despite the fact that he informed them he was working as a journalist and is even accredited with UEFA, the body organising the football tournament. The journalist added that he was carrying his iD at the time.
“The camera was only returned to me after I talked on the phone to the police spokesperson Gent Mullai.” He said he was still forced to delete some of the images on the camera.
This is the latest in a long line of violations against journalists by the Albanian police. Physical assaults, obstructions, seizure of equipment, arbitrary detention, and the indiscriminate use of gas are just some of the recent incidents in a country which fell 20 places in 2021’s Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.
