Azerbaijan - Analysis of the Law on Media

i Analysis of the 2022 Azerbaijan Law on Media Executive Summary This Analysis of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Media” (Media Law) by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) seeks to enrich and deepen the criticisms and analyses already made of the Law, based on international human rights standards, in particular the right to freedom of expression. [...] The scope of the coverage of the Media Law is based on a number of unclear and overbroad definitions, starting with the framing definition of a media entity (which encompasses all of the different media sectors), which fails to incorporate the ideas of editorial control or periodicity of dissemination (although both of these are added later on as formal requirements, absent which media entities ma. [...] The next section of the Analysis reviews the sanctions which are available for breach of the regulatory rules set out in the Media Law, which focus heavily on the suspension and termination of media entities instead of providing for a graduated system of sanctions which allows for sanctions to be matched appropriately to the nature of breaches. [...] ▪ The scope of the right of reply should be limited to cases where the publication of false information has harmed the legal rights of the claimant and the rules should be amended to limit replies to the length of the original report and to void a claim of a right of reply where an effective correction has been issued, however this came about. [...] Article 54.1 of the Media Law lists only three criteria to be taken into account when issuing a licence, namely the technical capacity of the applicant, the economic feasibility of the proposal and, for an application from an existing media entity, the impact of the licence on the rules governing monopolies.