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.