The Media Bill - it'd be premature to speak of consensus

The Media Development Agency (MEDIA) has disseminated information on December 22 discussion of the draft Law on media at its headquarters.

The discussion was attended by Ali Huseynli, First Deputy Chairman of Milli Majlis and Chairman of the Committee for Legal Policy and State Construction; Zahid Oruj, Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights; MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Elchin Shikhly, Chairman of Azerbaijan Journalists Union; Mehman Aliyev, Director General of Turan News Agency; Arif Aliyev, Chairman of New Generation Journalists Union; Vusala Mahirgyzy, founder of APA News Agency; Alesker Mammadli, expert on media law, as well as other media representatives.

Executive director of the Media Development Agency Ahmed Ismailov and Chairman of the National Television and Radio Council Ismet Sattarov answered questions at the meeting and expressed their attitude to opinions and suggestions.

The discussion of the draft law "On Mass Media" is ongoing, - so ends MEDIA's laconic message.

Note that the pro-government media hastily announced results of the meeting as consensus among the participants.

It ought to be noted that this is a hasty conclusion which is contrary to reality, since there is no final result, i.e. a revision of the draft law, as insisted upon by independent journalists. The only result may be called an understanding on the part of those lobbying for the bill in its current form with due regard for comments and arguments of the bill's opponents.

The MEDIA information is entitled "Another discussion took place as a part of public hearings on the draft law "On Mass Media". 

Added to this can be that during the discussion I stated that back in June we were promised to hold public hearings on the draft law prior to its discussion by the deputies. However, the bill was submitted to the Parliament on December 10 and was hastily adopted in two readings without public debates.

Under public debates are meant the involvement of the entire information society in the process.  The authors of the bill are trying to convince us that the document covers journalists only.  However, in reality it covers the whole society, because the draft law says that the producers of mass information are persons that disseminate it among more than two people.  On the other hand, today the media have lost the exclusive right to produce and disseminate information, and have even begun to yield in its production to society or to so-called popular journalism. Based on the realities, I proposed drafting a bill in terms of embracing interests of the entire information community.

Having regard to the fact that a completely new phenomenon has emerged in the information space - the involvement of the entire society in the production and dissemination of various kinds of information, I suggested postponing the draft law and starting to develop the concept of the information society of Azerbaijan and programs on the development of this community and only after that start drafting the bill when there is a clearer understanding of today's realities and future challenges.

The fact that the draft law is not ready for adoption in its current form is confirmed by the vagueness of its content, lack of clear wording, contradictions and ambiguity of a number of its provisions.

For instance, if we pay attention to the basic aspects of the draft law, this inconsistency and ambiguity is highlighted.

1. The law is called On the Media. What is the Media? Do we mean the media or society as a whole. The drafters say media. However in fact, first of all, the term has a broader meaning to cover the whole society, and secondly, there is a veiled subjectivity and responsibility of the whole society in the draft.

2. The Bible begins with a message "In the beginning was the word". And this message has become a cornerstone of the information development of human civilization.  The current bill begins with the cornerstone of the concept of media - the term "mass information." The bill interprets this term as a derivative of the professional journalism shop. But in fact, the term "mass information" means information disseminated on a mass scale and its producer is the entire society.  This circumstance fundamentally changes the meaning of the bill from narrowly journalistic to broadly public.

3. The term "platform" is used in the bill. It is missing in the existing laws on the mass media, on television and on the acquisition of information. In a word, there is no such term in legislation covering the sphere of information. The authors of the draft law are trying to convince us that the term only refers to the sphere of digital and cable television. However, the very notion of platform came into use in international practice as an area - derivatives of the Internet. And any website, personal page, and so on is a platform. At the meeting it was evident that the drafters avoided specifying the term platform in the bill. The draft specifies that a platform is licensed by the state which means that such a definition gives the right to license not only TV and the entire Internet.  And this provides the state with broad powers to control the entire Internet space.  Ultimately, Ali Huseynli agreed with this logic and instructed the drafters to introduce the concept of a platform into the bill.

Other issues of the discussion also remained controversial, including the ones that have no analogues in the world practice.  For example, as envisaged in the draft law on the issuance of journalists' certificates by the state, the introduction of a unified state media register, and finally, the non-compliance of the draft law provisions with international obligations and the constitution of Azerbaijan. Ali Huseynli invited media law expert Alekber Mammadli to discuss this issue at the Parliament on 23 December. 

Mehman Aliyev, Director of Turan News Agency