Strasbourg, 6/6/2013 - The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, expressed serious concern today at the promulgation by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, of amendments extending the application of criminal defamation provisions to online expression on 4 June 2013.

Muižnieks and Mijatovic, both of whom had explicitly called on the President not to sign these amendments into law following their adoption by Parliament on 14 May 2013, regretted this step, which clearly contradicts Azerbaijan’s commitments and obligations relating to the decriminalization of defamation and freedom of expression in general. (more...)

See also: Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe