Yerevan /Mediamax/. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović invited the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to use his authority to return a recently adopted media law to the parliament to proceed to its substantial revision.

In her letter to the President of Azerbaijan, the Commissioner raised serious concerns about the compliance of the new media law, which was adopted “without broad and meaningful consultations” on 30 December 2021, with international human rights standards concerning freedom of expression.

“The newly adopted law further deteriorates the situation as concerns freedom of expression and media freedom in the country by granting discretionary powers to state authorities regulating the media sector,” the Commissioner wrote, stressing the need to bring the law in line with international and European standards on freedom of expression and media freedom.