Media Development Agency and Parliament violated the law - expert

Baku/09.12.21/Turan: The draft of the new law "On Media" on December 10 will be submitted for discussion by parliamentary committees. At the same time, the document was not previously submitted for public discussion.

“Only today we learned from the media that the bill on December 10 will be submitted for discussion by parliamentary committees,” said media law expert Alasgar Mammadli in a comment on his facebook account. He drew attention to the fact that according to a presidential decree signed in January 2021, the bill had to be prepared within 2 months.

“Since April, the Media Development Agency has been promoting its 'advantages', but the text itself is not presented to the public. In a word, the bill is contained in the secretary even more "reliably" than the state secret," Mammadli said. But the problem is that the Milli Majlis is entering into competition with the Media Development Agency in violation of laws. Thus, the Agency had to publish the draft law on its website from the moment it was sent to parliament. And the Milli Majlis was obliged to post the bill on the website “meclis.gov.az” from the day it was received.

These are the requirements of Articles 29 and 30 of the Law "On Obtaining Information". Further, Mammadli quotes these articles: 

29.1. In order to ensure the interests of society, to reduce the large number of information requests, the holder of information must disclose the following information, which has arisen or acquired as a result of the fulfillment of public obligations.

29.1.10. drafts of normative legal acts - from the time of submission for agreement and approval.

30.1. Public information specified in Article 29.1 of this Law must be made public in the information resources of the Internet. — 06D-