Unblocking the view of the media space

Until recently, and even today, law enforcement agencies, generally and primarily the Prosecutor General's Office continue preventive conversations for critical publications. After the attempt on the mayor of Ganja, Elmar Veliyev, on July 3 and subsequent events, journalists have been summoned to the prosecutor's office with increasing frequency, due to the authorities' concern over the society"s jubilant reaction to these extraordinary events.

Independent experts analyzed these law enforcement actions and concluded they were illegal. This forced the authorities to shift the oversight functions in MTCIT. According to the law "On information, informatization and information protection" the MTCIT has the right to oblige the site to withdraw within 8 hours" information that poses a threat to state and public security. Further, the Ministry has the right to apply to the court for blocking the news, if it is not withdrawn, which was done against a number of sites.

However, the trials showed that MTCIT exceeded its authority, to put it mildly, presenting evidence to the court not about the threat of state security, but about the violation of defamation, which is beyond its competence and the scope of the above-mentioned law. In turn, the court adopted an unauthorized decision to block websites.

It is interesting that last year, despite instructions from the Presidential Administration, the MTCIT did not block websites accused of violating defamation, explaining this by saying that the matter is not in its competence. However, at least 14 sites were blocked without the official decision of the ministry. The editor(s) of blocked sites then directly pointed to pressure from the Administration.

It is noteworthy that this time the Ministry initially threatened the websites with blocking for critical articles addressed to presidential aide Ali Hasanov, demanding that they be removed from the content. The Center for Electronic Security attached to the MTCIT sent a warning letter to "www.az24saat.org" on the night of August 6. The Center demanded that the site's management remove the Articles entitled: "Presidential Assistant Ali Hasanov may be appointed Chairman of AZTV" (published on August 3, 2018 "The Press Council presented its Congress on Ali Hasanov's birthday" (March 10, 2018), "Ali Hasanov - the person who incorrectly informs Ilham Aliyev" (February 1, 2018), "Who and why closed the APA? "(August 3, 2018.) But after critical comments from media experts and the press, MTCIT as the motivator for blocking, was forced to provide examples on other topics and persons.

This indicates that the ministry was subjected to strong pressure, and was forced to make illegal decisions. However, this can hardly be called a consolidated decision of the authorities and some developed policy, which it might seem at first glance. This is evidenced by Sabail District Court decision of August 8 about the blockage which lasted several hours, and was canceled - in one case, even by the decision of the Court of Appeal of August 9. Such an expeditious decision is usually made in cases of high interference, as it was in the past when on April 8, 2009, the editor of the Tazadlar newspaper, Asif Myrzili, was arrested on libel charges.) The next day after the intervention of President Aliyev, the appellate court overturned the decision of the lower court. After that, blocking attacks on the sites stopped.

This situation suggests to say that the decision to block websites and to apply pressure on the ministry was made at the clerical level. It can be assumed that the person who made such a decision was confronted with the opposite position of the head of state, which is fraught with serious problems for him.

It is not yet clear what measures will be taken in the future to bring the power of the press to a constructive and legitimate course, but the very fact of what has happened indicates a certain revision of the views, at least of a certain wing of power, on media space.