On 8 May 2009 the Press Council Commission on Complaints considered the appeal of parliamentarian Guler Ahmedova about “Azadlig” Newspaper during the meeting of the council.
The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety was told by “Azadlig” Newspaper director Azer Ahmedov that the council adopted a decision for “Azadlig” Newspaper to publish a refutation.
“We’ll republish Guler Ahmedova’s speech at the parliament,” said Azer Ahmedov. “The outcome of this speech is that the parliamentarian is against ‘Flower HolIday.’ Based on the logic, the journalist evaluated the speech this way. Hopefully, the public will also assess this issue after the speech is fully published. If the plaintiff does not agree to this, we’ll think about other steps.”
A. Ahmedov emphasized that he and his staff will try to avoid having this issue end up in court.
On 28 April in Milli Mejlis, parliamentarian Guler Ahmedova expressed the opinion that “for the money spent on the flower holiday on late Heydar Aliyev’s birthday spent every year on 10 May, it is possible to lay a big garden.” In an article entitled “Flower holiday should be abolished” published in “Azadlig” Newspaper on 29 April 2009, it was emphasized that Ahmedova objected to the flower holiday. However, Ahmedova alleged that her opinions were distorted in the article and appealed to the Press Council.