Hafiz Babaly continues litigation with ATV TV channel

On August 8, the Baku Court of Appeal considered the complaint of the editor of the economic news department of the Turan agency, Hafiz Babaly, against the ATV TV channel.

An appeal was filed against the decision of the Sabail Court of April 30, which did not satisfy Babaly's claim against the specified TV company. Babaly himself participated online, as the journalist is under arrest in the case of the “Abzas Media” publication. The lawsuit was filed in connection with unfounded accusations and slander of the TV channel against Babaly in a report dated December 28, 2023.

In particular, ATV stated that "the editor of the Turan news agency, Hafiz Babaly, established contacts with foreign foundations and conducted investigations and prepared articles on grant projects."

The journalist's lawsuit says that Babaly's investigations were part of his journalistic activities, and not an order from foreign donors. In addition, no one has made claims about the published articles, and the information in these articles has not been refuted by any administrative body and has not been challenged in court.

However, the court of first instance did not conduct an objective investigation, lawyer Rasul Jafarov said.  According to him, the arguments of the representative of the ATV TV channel that the information was taken from the site Qafqazinfo.az is not wealthy.  According to the legislation, the media is not exempt from responsibility for the dissemination of information from another media outlet.

"According to Article 77 of the law on Media, the media is exempt from liability if it has published official reports of state bodies, statements or speeches of their officials, deputies, press releases of public, private and non-governmental organizations, parties, and news agencies. In this case, the reference to article 77 is not appropriate, because Qafqazinfo.az not an information agency, but an online newspaper. On the other hand, publishing on Qafqazinfo.az  was not an official communication of any state body or private, municipal or public organization. The source of the allegations on the site was not specified at all," Jafarov said.

However, the Court of Appeal did not conduct an objective investigation and dismissed the complaint. Now Babaly intends to file a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court.

*Babaly is under arrest in the case of “Abzas Media.” He denies the smuggling charge against him. Human rights activists recognized him as a political prisoner, and international organizations called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release all the defendants in the case against “Abzas Media.”