Iosif Syaredzich: “Unbearable conditions for journalists will be created in this situation”

A strict law on information security in Belarus will come in force in 6 months. The “council of the republic” approved an appropriate draft law, adopted by the lower house of the “parliament” before. Experts think that the Law on Information, Infomatisation, and Information Security sets total control over all kind of information in the country.

Authors of the law think that access of citizens to information must be regulated in Belarus, Polskie Radio reports.

“Information war is more powerful that military conflict. So, we need this law, we need to work out a scheme of information security,” “MP” Syarhei Kastsyan said.

The “MP” refused to say more about the scheme, referring to state secrecy. Now, any kind of information, considered by the authorities to be useless for people, may be referred to state secrecy. Lawyer Mikhail Pastukhou says that the state will in fact be a monopolist of information.

“A part of information will in fact be taken out of public use. Definition “restricted access information” and multiple-step classification of information are introduced. The state will control practically all information. It may be the first case in the world, when the state will be information monopolist. It curbs freedom of information, including freedom of media,” the lawyer explains.

Mikhail Pastukhou added that lawyers of the Belarusian Association of Journalists have repeatedly turned attention to errors in the law, sent their proposals, but none of them was taken into consideration.

Belarus is considered to be one of the most repressive countries when speaking about access to independent information. The law on information security will only complicate the issue. The problem is not in the law itself, but in the fact that the country is not living under its laws. Iosif Syaredzich, editor-in-chief of independent “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper, thinks that it is impossible to work as a journalist regardless to the laws adopted.

“Unbearable conditions for us journalists will be created in this situation. They have already been created. Being an editor, I see no difference, even if 100 such laws were adopted. Normal work is impossible. It would have been impossible even if all laws had been cancelled. Our country doesn’t live according to laws. If it had lived in accordance with the laws, even the worst ones, our life would have been easier that the life today. Laws and life exist separately. Lawlessness reigns in the country,” Iosif Syaredzich said.

People living in the post-Soviet counties remember the Soviet Union, where the main source of information was rumours, news, heard in buses or from neighbours in kitchens. Information, true or fictitious, always finds a way to people. If there is no access to independent media, the kingdom of rumours reigns.

The nest example is the latest events in Russia, a journalists’ fake about possible ruble devaluation, appeared on a Georgian website, caused panic in the country. People began to take money out of banks, and ruble fell. Officials may think they can calm people by hushing up negative events, but the result is negative. Citizens must trust the state, Mikhail Pastukhou turns attention.

“The state is interested that some information not to reach the public in order people were calm. But in my view, it will be right to trust citizens, for them to know what is going on in the country. It is guaranteed by the Constitution, the whole world lives in this way. When something happens, all people should know it. This law suggests a system of agencies, responsible for information security. The main of these agencies will be the State Center of Information Security governed by the President of the Republic of Belarus,” Mikhail Pastukhou says.

Mikhail Pastukhou, former judge of the Constitutional Court, turns attention to the fact that the law on information violates two articles of the Belarusian Constitution, allowing the right for freedom of speech and freedom of information. It also contradicts the international standards.