The Institute for Peace and Democracy and Azerbaijan Lawyers Association are conducting regular meetings and roundtables to prepare proposals on improving Azerbaijan’s court system.
One of these, a roundtable discussion entitled “Courts and the Media” was held on January 15.
During a meeting yesterday, Legal Enlightenment Society chairman lawyer Intigam Aliyev summarized all proposed offers and presented them. Recommendations related to court practices in the area of media freedom are as follows:
• To put moratorium on Criminal Code article containing criminal punishments due to libel and insult;
• To prepare a law defining civil responsibility due to defamation and adopt it within a short period of time;
• To use precedents from the European Court on Human Rights when considering cases against the media
• To provide trainings/instructions for judges to use when considering defamation cases.