10.12.07

Defamation and press freedom: Azerbaijan urged to pass defamation law

The Council of Europe has urged Azerbaijan to introduce a workable defamation law to help clarify the legal boundaries of free speech and provide the media with a defensive framework against the incursions into free speech and human rights that have been witnessed of late.

With journalists regularly arrested or imprisoned for alleged acts of 'slander or insult' against the state and its officials the law used to prosecute (and persecute) them lacks the democratic checks and balances that provide for legitimate questioning while protecting against unwarranted attack on reputation.

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