Belarus ‘Amends’ Media Law

There will be more ‘reasons’ for shutting any media source down.

The so-called ‘House of Representatives’ passed a bill to amend the media law in the first reading.

According to the Press Service of the ‘Tent Campers’, the bill determines the features of the functioning of news aggregators and the legal status of their owners. Previously, these rules were indicated in the decree.

The bill also expands the list of grounds for cancelling certificates of state registration of media sources, online publications or news aggregators and restricting online access to them. The Press Service did not specify the grounds added to the law.

The bill specifies the requirements for the activities of owners of Internet resources that broadcast TV and (or) other media products.

Also, the bill specifies the procedure for the activities of foreign media on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, as well as the possibility of applying retaliatory measures against foreign media, online media resources and journalists of foreign media.

So-called Rep. Liliya Ananich explained before the meeting that the Ministry of Information will be able to apply these measures in response to the actions of foreign states that impede the dissemination of information by the Belarusian media.