The Council commented on the official opinion of the Venice Commission on the Law "On Media".

The Audiovisual Council of the Republic Azerbaijan commented on the official opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the Law "On Media". 

On June 20, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe published its official opinion on the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Media" on its website.  What is your position on the criticism reflected in the opinion?

We would like to inform you that there were previous opinion versions prior to the latest version that you have reviewed. Those versions contained a number of misconceptions and ideas that did not reflect reality. However, after the correspondence of the Media Development Agency and the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the Venice Commission, and some  statements, the opinion has taken its final form. Yesterday, the MEDIA Agency officially commented on the opinion. The points in the Agency's attitude are, in fact, relevant to all media activities, and their attitude also reflect the position of the Council.

We would like to know your position on the criticism of the funding of the Council.

One of the ideas expressed in the opinion is that the regulatory body should be financed not from the state budget, but from revenues from license fees. This situation exists in a number of European countries. This is normal, since in these countries licenses are issued for an average of 4-6 years, and license fees are also quite high. These amounts range from 10.000 to 100.000 euros. In Azerbaijan, however, this is not possible becouse licenses are issued termless and the amount of state fee is very small, in some cases, even expressed in symbolic numbers for obtaining licenses for audiovisual media especially after the recent amendments made to the Law "On State fees". It should be noted that in an average of 75% of cases audiovisual media regulatory bodies in Europe are fully or partially funded from the state budget. Given the full transparency of funding, we cannot agree with claims that the method of financing from the state budget will undermine the independence of the regulatory body.

The review contains opinions that some types of audiovisual media activities do not require a license, and there is a simple registration procedure for them. What is your opinion about this?

Registration procedure for audiovisual media activity is not provided in the Republic of Azerbaijan. This type of activity requires a license. However, the procedure for issuing licenses is planned to be implemented in two forms. The first procedure is carried out on the basis of a competition. Such procedures only apply to types of audiovisual media activities that use limited resources. The second procedure is the issuance of a license without a competition, which is a formal license procedure similar to the authorization procedure existing in those countries. The procedure envisages the licensing of platform broadcasters transmitting their programs in cable, IPTV, OTT and online environment, platform operators retransmitting through these methods. It should be noted that since 2003, the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan (formerly the National Television and Radio Council) received more than 50 applications of operators for licensing, and the Council has never decided to refuse. Even in cases where there were shortcomings in the incoming documents, the experts of the Council supported them, and did not turn back the appeals. At present, these operators are operating normally. There are a formal licensing procedure and tender licensing procedure in some European countries, as in Azerbaijan. When the draft law was worked out, this model was taken as the basis, since it complies with the legislation of Azerbaijan.

In the opinion, there is position that the council is given great authority to terminate licenses granted to audiovisual media entities. What is your position on this?

As in all developed countries, a number of sanctions can be imposed on audiovisual media entities in Azerbaijan, and this issue is regulated by a number of laws. Such sanctions include warnings, suspension of broadcasting for 1-24 hours, suspension of broadcasting for 1-30 days, application of financial sanctions ranging from 3,000 to 8,000 AZN, suspension of the license and revocation of the license. Of course, it is possible to impose light sanctions on the subject before applying any heavy sanctions, and the legislation requires it. All decisions taken by the Council, including those that impose the heaviest sanctions, such as the revocation of a license, may be considered in court.