Dunja Miyatovic
Strasbourg/25.01.22/Turan: In a letter made public today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, invites the President of Azerbaijan, Mr Ilham Aliyev, to use his authority to return a recently adopted media law to the Milli Majlis to proceed to its substantial revision.
In her letter, the Commissioner raises serious concerns about the compliance of the new media law, which was adopted without broad and meaningful consultations by the Milli Majlis on 30 December 2021, with international human rights standards concerning freedom of expression and media freedom. The law appears to over regulate the media field and the profession of journalism, contrary to the principles of free, independent, uncensored media and pluralism.
“The newly adopted law further deteriorates the situation as concerns freedom of expression and media freedom in the country by granting discretionary powers to state authorities regulating the media sector, including through licensing, excessively restricting journalists’ work, and introducing several limitations to the financial, legal and operational activities of media companies and entities”, writes the Commissioner, stressing the need to bring the law in line with international and European standards on freedom of expression and media freedom. -02D-
Politics
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The agreement reached at the COP29 climate summit has been hailed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as a critical step in global efforts to combat climate change. Speaking after the conclusion of high-stakes negotiations, Guterres emphasized that the agreement is pivotal for maintaining the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, a threshold considered crucial to preventing the worst impacts of climate change.
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On 23 November at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, eco-activists from different countries held a protest action against the failure of countries to agree on climate finance.
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On the eve of the closing of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has drawn attention to the criminal cases of journalists detained in Azerbaijan.
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Negotiations at the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku have been extended until November 24, a source in the UNFCCC Secretariat told the Turan news agency. According to the source, participants aim to finalize and sign the concluding documents by that date.
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