Azerbaijan starts public campaign for defamation law

The Institute of Media Rights (IMR), engaged in defence of the freedom of the press and expression in Azerbaijan, has announced a start of the public campaign with the aim to adopt the defamation law, which cancels criminal responsibility for slander and insult.

The start of the campaign was announced on June 14 at the roundtable "Legislative Initiatives in the Sphere of Defamation" organized by the IMR.

The participants of the event – public activists, experts and journalists – discussed a draft appeal to the country's president Ilham Aliev calling him to ensure adoption of the defamation law. The appeal refers to the preparation in recent years by civil society activists of a number of proposals on defamation and a number of prepared drafts.

The latest version of the defamation bill was drafted in 2011 by the experts of the Office of the OSCE Special Representative for the Freedom of the Media and the Press Council of Azerbaijan and received support of local and international experts.

The bill that assumes cancellation of criminal persecution for defamation was drafted in accordance with the standards established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for fair considerations of civil cases on the freedom of expression, the appeal says.

"The Institute of Media Rights starts a long-term campaign with the aim to adopt the above bill," said Rashid Gadjily, Director of the IMR.

According to his story, the aim of the campaign is to make the authorities aware that "the civil society is attentively watching the process of adoption of this law and anticipates it."

The campaign assumes holding a forum with participation of mass media managers, parliamentarians and the public with the aim to support the initiative of the defamation law.

The initiators of the campaign hope that the defamation law will be adopted at the autumn session of the parliament later this year.