RSF: New Media and Broadcasting Council Will Strengthen State Control Over Independent Information Space
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international press freedom organization, has criticized a draft law in Azerbaijan that would establish a new body called the Media and Broadcasting Council.
Under the draft law, which is expected to be put to a vote in the Milli Majlis on 30 June, the Media Development Agency and the Audiovisual Council would be abolished and replaced by the new Media and Broadcasting Council.
“The government says it wants to adapt the regulatory framework to an environment in which the boundaries between the press, broadcast media, and digital platforms have disappeared. It also refers to the need to protect ‘national information security’ and the ‘economic independence of the media.’ However, Azerbaijani experts say the reform has another purpose: to strengthen the state’s ability to control a media environment in which the main spaces for independent information have shifted to digital platforms,” RSF said.
In its statement, RSF quoted Jeanne Cavelier, head of the organization’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, as saying that the draft law does not create an independent regulator.
“By creating an information management center serving the executive branch, this completes the state’s control over the media. At a time when the last independent journalists have been imprisoned, forced into exile, or pushed to work clandestinely, the authorities have chosen to concentrate all levers of control over the sector in their own hands. Genuine regulation should protect pluralism, not be used to consolidate political power,” Cavelier said.
RSF also recalled Azerbaijan’s former Ministry of Press and Information, which was abolished in 2001, saying that the new council would effectively revive that institution.
“There is one major difference: control is now aimed not only at the press, television, and radio, but also at digital platforms — YouTube, Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram — which have become the main channels through which Azerbaijani citizens can still access independent information,” the organization emphasized.
