Online Internet resources are blocked illegally

Earlier February 2017 the Ministry of Transport, Communication and High Technologies (MTCHT) was empowered to block Internet resources. For media milieu this resounded like a bomb explosion. That provided the authorities with legal right to block and close Internet media. A new chapter was added to the Law "On Information and Protection of Information". It should be stressed that all these amendments go beyond the scope of legal relations contrary to legitimate interests and to the detriment of media freedom principles. Also, the point is about violation of Articles 47, 50 and 71 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

The said amendments authorized the MTCHT to block, without court decision, media Internet resource and thus apply censorship against the conventional law - the right to the freedom of expression extra-judicially. True, this authority as exclusive should be exercised in extreme case. However, a 17-year practice is indicative that this authority will be applied not as exclusive but basic to nullify the fundamental right - the freedom of expression.

Statutory procedure of normal blocking

Amended to the Law "On Information and Protection of Information," Article 13-3 provides detailed information about the procedure.

As soon as the MTCHT reveals the placement of prohibited information on Internet resource or identifies this fact from a physical or legal entity, it is necessary to send a written warning to an owner of information Internet resource and domain, as well as to the host provider. Within 8 hours from the date of warning the prohibited information should be withdrawn from the information Internet resource. If failed, the MTCHT will go to the law by the site of resource location (town, region) with a request to restrict the resource entry. In other words, the normal blocking procedure should take place not on decision of the MTCHTТ by on the basis of court decision. Urgent measures may be taken in exceptional cases.

How the law regulates the blocking

Newly adopted Articles 13-3.3 and 13-3.4 reveal the Internet resource blocking procedure in exceptional cases. If law-stipulated interests of the state and society or lives and health of citizens are threatened, the entry into the information Internet resource may temporarily be restricted under a decision of the MTCHT. A superficial impression is that all the latest blocking decisions as set forth in Article have been passed in line with the normal procedure. However, that"s wrong. A principal thesis lies in the subsequent clause of Article 13-3.4. If the MTCHT has adopted a decision on blocking, it shall go to the law requesting to make a decision on restricting the access to the blocked information Internet resource. The Law provides that the two steps shall be simultaneous, i.e. if there is a decision on blocking, it is essential to go to the law. It"s exactly our problem. Following the entry of the law in force on 27, 2017 the MTCHT appealed to the Sabayil court requesting to prohibit entering the sites as follows: www.azadlıg.org, www.azadlıq.info, www.azerbaycansaatı.com, www.turan.tv and www.meydan.tv.

In defiance of another Article (13-3.5) of the Law, a decision on illegal blocking had been in effect within 15 days, not 5 days.

Another MTCHT-ignored function is specified in Article 13-3.6 of the Law. If the Ministry has blocked the site and the court, in turn, made a decision to prohibit the entry into the resource (a decision of Sabayil court that prohibited the entry into sites www.azadlıg.org, www.azadlıq.info, www.azerbaycansaatı.com, www.turan.tv and www.meydan.tv), in this case "The List of information resources which are prohibited to spread information" should be compiled and be accessible for everyone. For some reason or other, the Ministry has blocked above 60 resources over the past 17 months but did not go to the law, nor prepared and presented a statutory list to the public. In so doing, the MTCHT grossly violates the Law and illegally interferes with the freedoms of expression and speech.

A failure to meet its commitments by the Ministry as set forth in Article 13-3.6 of the Law results in a failure to comply with another Article (13-3.7). The reason is that host- and Internet-providers set filters that prohibit the entry of resources specified in the List. An official written notification should be forwarded to the resource owner. As a result, all host- and Internet-providers had to carry out the blocking operation in an underhand way, so they are silent and evade informing on the blocking of a legal resource owner.

In so doing, representatives of state structures and MTCHT officials who accuse online resources of irresponsibility and non-professionalism directly violate existing laws, act amateurishly. Causing alarm is the lack of appropriate structure and persons to exert control over this arbitrariness while authorized bodies and the Ombudswoman do not say a word and prefer to keep mum.