On October 28, 2016, the Public Union for Assistance to Economic Initiatives and the Fund for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Market Economy (SBIİYF) within the framework of the project “Supporting the development of small entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan” implemented with the financial support of the US IDA, “Some problems that hinder the development of entrepreneurship and organized round table discussions on their solutions. Representatives of state institutions, entrepreneurs, independent experts and local NGOs participated in the discussion.
Azer Mehtiyev, the head of the Public Union for Assistance to Economic Initiatives, who opened the event with an introduction and welcomed the participants, gave brief information to the event participants about the measures taken to investigate the problems faced by small entrepreneurs in the country and to eliminate them during the 4 and a half years of the implementation of the “Support to the development of small entrepreneurship” project. .
Greeting the participants of the event on behalf of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the vice-president of the organization Vugar Zeynalov spoke about the importance of the discussed issues for entrepreneurs. V. Zeynalov said that very interesting activities were carried out within the framework of the project to identify the problems faced by entrepreneurs in the country and to eliminate them, and expressed hope that these activities will be continued.
“How does the violation of the presumption of innocence affect the legal proceedings involving entrepreneurs and their business?” The lawyer-expert Abil Bayramov, who made a presentation on the topic, noted that in a number of cases, the information disseminated in the mass media violates the principle of presumption of innocence and damages the business reputation of business entities. Violation of the presumption of innocence occurs in relation to natural persons engaged in entrepreneurial activity, and defamation of business reputation occurs in relation to legal entities that are entrepreneurial subjects. Violations can be found both in the materials prepared by the journalists themselves and in the information provided by various institutions and published as it is.
A. Bayramov noted that the violation of the right of entrepreneurs to the presumption of innocence and the dissemination of information defaming the business reputation of the company lead to serious negative consequences. This may have a serious impact on the decision to be made regarding the business entity during the court investigation. In addition, the formation of a negative image of the business entity as a result of the information published in the mass media can lead to the refusal of the goods and services produced by the business entity and, as a result, to a decrease in its income. A more serious outcome is not excluded – the business entity may lose its place in the market and be forced to terminate its activities.
The expert emphasized that there are necessary legal mechanisms to protect business entities from the mentioned violations. So, according to the current legislation, the business entity can demand the refutation of the information defaming its business reputation in a court of law. If information defaming the business reputation of a business entity has been disseminated in the mass media, it must be refuted in that mass media. The business entity, whose business reputation has been disseminated, has the right to demand compensation for the damage caused as a result of its dissemination, along with the refutation of that information. Unfortunately, in practice, business entities do not take advantage of the mentioned legal opportunity.
After the presentation, A. Bayramov answered the questions of the event participants. Arzu Aliyeva, a businessman who spoke at the discussions, noted that most of the slanderous articles in the media against entrepreneurs are of “black PR” nature. There is a need to organize the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights in this area. The businessmen who participated in the discussions noted that a number of state institutions, along with the media, are responsible for disseminating information that harms the business reputation of entrepreneurs in the media without the court’s decision.
Then Samir Aliyev, member of the Management Board of the Public Union for Assistance to Economic Initiatives, expert of the project, “Registration of farm lands: have the problems been solved?” made a presentation on the subject. First of all, he drew attention to the “Doing Business” report, prepared jointly by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which includes an assessment of the business environment. According to him, in the 2017 report, the position of Azerbaijan has deteriorated in a number of areas, including property registration. “According to the criterion of property registration, our position was good before and we shared the first places. However, unfortunately, we have been losing our position recently and have dropped one more place compared to last year, ranking 22nd among 190 countries.