Media Rights Institute: Amount of Court Fines Against Media is Growing

Media Rights Institute (IPM) has expressed grave concern about the increased judicial penalties against journalists and the media, a trend which has intensified in recent months.

In four cases, the courts have fined newspapers for a total amount of 130 thousand manats.  

The Narimanov Court chastised the newspaper Khural; the Lankaran and Yasamal courts fined the newspaper Azadlig; and Baku Administrative Economic Court N 2 applied sanctions against Yeni Musavat.

In all cases, the subject of litigation was articles published on socially relevant themes.  The courts did not state whether the related publications included criticism of politicians and officials by ordinary citizens, nor were there any statements regarding whether there w deliberate inaccuracies by the journalists. 

IPM considers that the penalties, which the media cannot afford, pose serious threats to freedom of expression, contribute to the development of self-censorship among journalists, and suppress the desire to write critical articles.  The penalties also hinder the implementation of the media as public watchdogs.

IPM encourages the speedy adoption of the defamation law, which would ensure the adoption of fair judgments, based on the practice of democratic countries and precedents of the European Court of Human Rights. -16D06-