Law No. 769-IQ, The Law on Mass Media

Providing that: (1) Internet contents is regulated by the general rules regulating the content of all mass media (art 3); there are no special laws (neither legislation, nor regulatory acts, nor any court decisions) regulating access to the internet and sanctioning the blocking of websites. Nevertheless, there have been cases of blocking online content in Azerbaijan; (2) Access to the Internet can be defined as the right to access information or documents disseminated via the internet; (3) production and propagation of mass media can be temporarily suspended or terminated only by a decision of the founder or court (art 19); (4) In case of transmission in the mass media of information humiliating honor and dignity of physical and legal persons of slanderous and offensive nature, distorting of thoughts, the offended party has the right within one months to require an answer to be given in the mass media, the disproof of the information, and the publication of a correction . . . (art 44); (5) Editors and journalist will bear civil, administrative, and criminal responsibility pursuant to the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic (i) for publication of information, whose announcement is forbidden by the law, (ii) in case of absence by the editor-in-chief (editors) of control of the conformity of the materials, published in print publications, to the requests of the present Law, (iii) for the dissemination of information without the indication of its source, (iv) for the publication of information encroaching on the personal life of citizens, (v) for the publication or transmission of pornographic materials (art 60).

 

According to the Article 151 of the Constitution, international agreements binding upon Azerbaijan prevail over domestic legislation, with the exception of the Constitution itself and acts accepted by way of referendum. Thus, in the case of a conflict between the provisions of the implemented international norms and the provisions of any domestic laws pertaining to Internet governance, the former shall prevail.