The 11th Meeting of the Black Sea Regulatory Authorities Forum (BRAF) was held in Baku
On April 15, 2025 the 11th Meeting of the Black Sea Regulatory Authorities Forum (BRAF) of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Member States was held in Baku, organized by the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
BRAF is an important regional platform established to expand dialogue and cooperation among the broadcasting regulatory authorities of the countries in the region, and to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences.
The main topic of the Meeting, which brought together around 30 leaders and authorized representatives from the audiovisual media regulatory authorities of Serbia, Romania, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, as well as officials from the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children Affairs and the Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was "Protection of Children in Media Services".
At the opening ceremony of the Meeting, Chairperson of the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ismat Sattarov welcomed the participants and expressed his pleasure to see them in Baku, emphasized the relevance of the issue of children protection in media services, provided information about the special attention and support given to this area by the state, and also expressed his confidence that the exchange of experience and knowledge on this issue would be beneficial to all parties.
Then, Secretary General of BRAF Ms. Deniz Güçer and First Deputy Secretary General of Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization Ms. Merve Safa Kavakçı delivered opening speeches. After the opening ceremony, an informative video clip prepared by the Audiovisual Council was shown.
The representative of the BRAF Permanent Secretariat presented to the guests a report dedicated to the 10th Meeting of BRAF, hosted by the Radio Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) of the Republic of Türkiye in Antalya in 2023.
Mr. Taleh Guliyev, Head of the Communication Division of the Audiovisual Council, made a comprehensive presentation on the topic of "Latest innovations in media landscape and broadcasting regulation in Azerbaijan" and provided detailed information about the authority’s activities. Then, representatives of the regulatory authorities of the member countries also presented their country reports on the latest innovations in the field of media.
Following the reports, the candidacy for the rotating presidency of BRAF was discussed, and the rotating presidency of the Forum for 2025-2026 was handled over the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) of Albania.
In the second part of the meeting, Mr. Hashim Alimammadzadeh, Advisor to the Chairperson of the Audiovisual Council, made a comprehensive presentation entitled "Protection of Children in Media Services and the Audiovisual Council", in which gave information about children's media in Azerbaijan, the protection of children from harmful information, the application of existing legislation in this area, and the work done by the Audiovisual Council in this direction. The meeting then continued its work with panel sessions.
The first panel was dedicated to the topic "Legal Framework for Child Protection and Its Effective Implementation". The panel, moderated by Ms. Jelena Kolo Jovanović, Coordinator for International Affairs of Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) of the Republic of Serbia, included discussions on the legal framework for child protection by Mr. Deniz Güler, Vice President of RTÜK, Ms. Armela Krasniqi, Chairperson of AMA, Ms. Theodora Papadaki, Legal Expert of the National Council for Radio and Television (NCRT) of Greece, Mr. Saša Simović, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs of REM, and Ms. Aneta Gonta, Deputy Chairperson of the Audiovisual Council (CA) of the Republic of Moldova.
Then, a second panel session was organized on the topic "The role of media literacy and parental control in the protection of children" moderated by Ms. Saida Shafiyeva, Head of the Communication Division of the Media Development Agency. At the panel session, Mr. Fazil Novruzov, Head of the Office of the Audiovisual Council, Mr. Elgun Safarov, Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Mr. Iliya Lyutskanov, Chief Expert of the Bulgarian Council for Electronic Media (CEM), Ms. Tinatini Tchatchukashvili, Chief Specialist of the Georgian Communications Commission (ComCom), and Mr. Lucian Dindirica, Member of the Romanian National Audiovisual Council (NAC), provided information on the situation in the member states on the topic in question and held discussions in this direction.
