Media

Media

OSCE Baku Office holds seminar for Azerbaijani journalists

13 September 2008 10:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ramil Mammadli â€“APA. OSCE Baku Office organized a seminar for the journalists entitled â€œThe defamation in OSCE space: legislation and experienceâ€ on Saturday.Monica Martinez, Head of Rule of Law within the OSCE Office in Baku, mentioned the importance of ensuring the full exercise of freedom of expression as a fundamental right guaranteed by the Azerbaijani Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights binding upon Azerbaijan. She further referred to international organizations’ trend to decriminalize defamation and to the stand of the ECtHR in this regard. Finally, she stated that journalists should take into account while performing their duties existing limitations in accordance with the applicable Azerbaijani legislation, which currently penalizes defamation.
The Judge of Supreme Court Vafaddin Ibayev spoke about the topic and questions interested the journalists. He said 5 thousand complaint letters were sent to the European Court form Azerbaijan so far. 100 of them were reviewed and decisions were passed on 13 complaints.