“MPs” hasten to adopt new Law on Media before elections

A draft law on media is included in the agenda of the current session of the “house of representatives.” The document was worked out in secrecy and is aimed at hardening control over mass media, including Internet-media.

The draft law on media is included in the agenda of the current session of the “house of representatives.” This decision was taken on 10 June on the session of the council of the lower “chamber” of the Belarusian “parliament,” BelaPAN reports.

The document was introduced to the “parliament” on 10 June and was sent to the juridical department, where it will be evaluated by experts. Yury Kulakouski, head of the Commission for Human Rights, National relations and Media, refused to say the details of the draft law.

At present, the Law on Press and Other Media is active in Belarus since 1995. In 2003 a draft law on media was sent for revision after the Presidential Administration had considered it. The authorities assured the draft would meet international standards.

Representatives of the journalists community criticised the government for the work over the law on media was closed. The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) managed to have a look at the draft law text. As the result it was revealed to the public that the document aims at harshening of media activity, including Internet-media.

Certain high-rank officials have recently given more and more statements on hardening the Belarusian Lawson media.

Aleh Pralyaskouski, director of the Information Analytical Center at the Presidential Administration, insists on necessary “increasing of responsibility for information on the Internet.” The official said it in an interview to “Belaruskaya Dumka” magazine in May.

According to him, the state regulation of the Internet should contain a complex of legislative and organisational measures. “Responsibility for spreading of wrongful information on the Internet should be strengthened on legislative level. If information appears on a site, an administrator, an owner of the resource and a provider must be responsible for it,” Aleh Pralyaskouski emphasised.

First deputy minister of information Liliya Ananich said the same things earlier and proposed to impose registration of Internet media. In her view, Belarus has faced a problem of “stream of misinformation from foreign websites.” “But there are practices used in China, which blocked the access to the sites on its territory,” Ananich thinks.

Miklosh Harashti, OSCE spokesman on mass media freedom harshly criticised the draft law on media in March 2007. In particular, he criticised an article on necessary re-registration of a media resource if foundation data or the name of the edition are changed as well as if the state agencies make two decisions on determination of the edition within a year.

Arbitrary requirements for registration and re-registration can threaten critically media at any moment, the OSCE representative noted. “This threat becomes especially serious in time of important public event, in particular, national elections,” M. Harashti said.