Today, 18 January, in the Baku Economic Court#1, under the chairmanship of Judge Sherafet Mammadov, a hearing was held on the lawsuit of Mozalan journal’s editor-in-chief Movsum Ashrafoglu (Movsumov) against the Press Council.
M.Ashrafoglu said that the decision to name the journal “racketeering press” by the Press Council is completely unfounded. He noted that on 7 October, a woman by the name Aida Shahverdiyeva addressed a letter to the journal’s editorial office regarding indecent behavior of Arzu Aliyeva, gynecology doctor at the Maternal Hospital after Gasimov. The editor-in-chief said that the material was written on the basis of investigations and it is unfounded to call the journal “racketeering” for this article.
Press Council representative S.Aliyev asked the court to reject the demands in the lawsuit and filed a motion for Arzu Aliyeva to give a witness account.
M.Ashrafoglu put forth a motion and demanded that A.Shahverdiyeva be called to the court as a witness.
Judge S.Mammadova fulfilled the motions and scheduled the next hearing for 10 February, 11.00 a.m.
The editor-in-chief appealed to court and demanded that he be paid 50 000 AZN in compensation and that the Press Council issue a refutation and apologize for announcing Mozalan journal as “a racketeering press.”
Mozalan satiric journal was founded in 2005 and has been published monthly since 2007.