Andrei Bastunets: Block of webpages should be done on the basis of Information Ministry’s decision

Belarusan authorities decided to spread the black list of webpages, access to which is prohibited for the users of public institutions, for every citizen.

On March 27 users of some providers faced the restriction to a number of websites, such as Belaruski Partizan, Charter97, and “Viasna”. Earlier these information resources have already been on the black list, access to which was limited in the public, education, and culture institutions. The authorities seem to spread this practice to all citizens of the country.

“Charter97 and Belaruski Partizan are on the black list of resources access to which is restricted for distribution at the Belarusan territory, - told deputy chair and lawyer of Belarusan Association of Journalists (BAJ) Andrei Bastunets to “EuroBelarus” Information Service. – However, this restriction should only concern state bodies, public, education, and culture institutions, but not every citizen”.

According to him, today according to the law on mass media access to certain websites can be limited not only to users of certain organizations, but also to all citizens of the country. “However, in first case the decision should be made by the Operative and Analytical Center (OAC) under the President of Belarus, while in the latter case the decision should be made by the Ministry of Information. That is why for me even from the point of view of Belarusan legislation it is very questionable why some citizens have restricted access to information on the basis of Decree No.60 as of February 1, 2010 “On measures for improving the use of national segment of Internet”. I.e. this is an attempt to spread today’s black list and existing restrictions not only to public institutions, but also to all Belarusan citizens. I think it has nothing to do with the law”.

- Can we make some parallels with the winter’s blocking of websites to independent media resources?

- As to the winter blockings, it was an action no one took responsibility for, although all experts were inclined to think it happened at the level of “Beltelecom” or providers.

Today this block can be done quite legally, as it is happening with Charter97 and Belaruski Partizan.

- But someone does initiate the restrictions.

- There is a concrete law that basically allows blocking websites, though it should be done on the basis of Information Ministry’s decision. The Operative and Analytical Center (OAC) under the President of Belarus can also block websites, but not for everyone, only for public institutions. And now it is blocked for everyone with the reference to the OAC.

Thus, we get a mess. In reality, the OAC hardly could have decided to restrict access to websites, which is proved by the fact that not all providers realized this decision. It seems that some of them just extended the restrictions that are working towards public institutions to all citizens without having legal authority to do so.

- Will the black list be extended?

- I believe that the websites that are today on the black list for the users from public institutions will be announced banned for everyone. It might happen, as so is the situation when other resources might fall under the restrictions in case of political expediency.

- Can the restrictions be avoided through anonymizers and proxy servers?

- These variants of access were mostly used in winter, when access to a number of independent websites was limited. The state reacted to that, and now anonymizers and proxy servers might also be blocked. How possible is that from the technical perspective is hard to say.

- The authorities have started talking about responsibility of site owners for the comments at forums.

- - The latest amendments to the law on media provide for the possible responsibility of site owners, including that for comments. But I think it contradicts the Decree No.60, which says that responsibility is borne by those who posted information and left comments.

Now the Minister of Information Lilia Ananich supported the changes to the President’s Decree to eradicate this contradiction.

- Does it mean that in the near future we can expect the appearance of new restricting measures at the legislative level in the media?

- Basically, Ananich announced them.

- What it is connected with?

- I think both with the forthcoming president elections and with the difficult economic situation.