Ahead of tomorrow's opening ceremony at the European Games, in Baku, Azerbaijan, it has been announced the journalists from The Guardian along with other media bodies have been banned from entering the country.
The games are expected to see around 6,000 athletes, including 63 from Ireland take part in 30 sports.
Owen Gibson, who is Chief Sports Writer with The Guardian spoke to Off the Ball in April about his visit to Azerbaijan last year, to check in on preparations for the Games.
"Underneath the surface there is real fear of a clampdown that the authorities have made on free speech and any independent journalists, lots of independent blogger, NGOs. These people have been harassed and driven out of existence really, or thrown in prison. That's the flipside of this drive they've got to put themselves on the map through sport," he told Joe Molloy.
The crackdown against journalists continues, with many organisations including Amnesty International calling for the freedom of jailed journalists who have criticised he countries president Ilham Aliyev.
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