![Who and whom should control: media - the government or vice versa?](https://turan.az/resized/media/2021/main/121400042247-750-500-resize.webp)
Who and whom should control: media - the government or vice versa?
Baku/14.12.21/Turan: On December 10, the parliament discussed the draft law "On Media" with the participation of about 70 representatives of the media and non-governmental organizations. A number of critical, independent journalists and experts were not invited to the discussions that day.
The bill has been developed since the spring of last year behind closed doors, without discussion with the participation of independent media and lawyers in the field of freedom of speech. The government plans to pass the law on January 1, 2022. What does the bill contain?
Media expert, lawyer Alesker Mammadli answered these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.
According to him, there was no need for a new law to provide legal regulation of the activities of the mass media. Since both in terms of content and from a technical point of view, the legislation covers all aspects of the activities of all types of media. It is obvious that the bill is aimed at licensing Internet media, ensuring regulation of the activities of journalists by the state.
According to Mammadli, our legislation already severely restricts the activities of journalists. “In particular, defamation entails criminal liability, although from the point of view of the European Court of Human Rights this is unacceptable,” he said.
According to the media expert, official statistics say that today approximately 70-80% of the country's population is covered by the Internet. And if we add the number of other users to this figure, it turns out that 7-8 million people use alternative platforms in one form or another.
“Because the bill concerning the Internet affects the interests of a huge number of people and therefore its development and discussion should have been broad enough. Moreover, if the talk is about the media, this directly concerns the right to freedom of expression, protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the draft law was developed without discussion with the participation of independent media and lawyers in the field of freedom of speech. Moreover, in violation of the law, the Media Development Agency and the Milli Majlis did not publish the bill on their web pages,” Mammadli said. Mammadli claims that the bill is contrary to the country's Constitution.
“Article 47 (Freedom of thought and speech) and Article 50 (Freedom of information) of the country's Basic Law, the Law on Freedom of Information, and the Law on Mass Media restrict government interference in the activities of journalists, while the bill is aimed at establishing strict control.
In addition, according to the expert, he arbitrarily expands the circle of media subjects, establishes restrictions for them not provided for in the Constitution. –0--
-
- Want to say
- 14 December 2021 16:12
-
- Finance
- 14 December 2021 16:22
Difficult question
-
Less than two days remain until the early parliamentary elections. Today is the last day for campaigning and promotion. Is there a sense that an electoral process is taking place in the country?
-
Azerbaijan's external public debt has decreased, while its domestic public debt has increased. As of July 1, 2024, the external public debt stood at USD 5.3613 billion, down by USD 1.0999 billion or 17% compared to the beginning of the year. In contrast, the domestic public debt amounted to 16.5719 billion manats, an increase of 705.5 million manats from the start of the year.
-
Baku has included individuals who voted against the Azerbaijani delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on its "persona non grata" list. This was stated by the official representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Aykhan Hajizade, in response to comments made by German parliamentarian Frank Schwabe in an interview with Radio Azadliq.
-
On August 23, in Tashkent, in the presence of President Ilham Aliyev and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, an allied document was signed between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Leave a review