Ministry of Information: “Journalists should not be concerned”
15.06.2008 | Publications
The civil society and non-governmental media representatives
are concerned about the new Draft Media Law which may put stronger restrictions
on the freedom of expression. What do officials and deputies say about the
draft law in this regard?
The Draft Law is being elaborated by a working group headed by a Deputy of
the Belarusian Parliament Jury Kulakovsky. However it was not possible to
receive his comments, due to his secretary, Mr. Kulakovsky was on a business
trip. In the mean time the National Assembly confirmed that the meeting of the
working group to discuss the Draft Law was scheduled for 16 June and as soon as
on 18 June the Draft Law would be debated in the House of Representatives.
Is there an explanation for such speedy process? A Deputy Sergey
Gaidukevich, Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, says, that he had not yet
had an opportunity to familiarize himself with the Draft Law, he found out
about it from the Media. Regardless of some particularly complicated relations
with some newspapers, in general, Sergey Gaidukevich was against restrictions
of the freedom of press. In particular, he was against the simplification of
the closure procedures for newspapers in case of certain violations:
“To be honest, I have a negative attitude towards this concrete example
and other measures that restrict media development. The development of press is
only possible when press is free. Therefore I shall vote only for the draft law
that I would agree with and which would not contradict my position”.
What is the
position of Sergey Gaidukevich regarding attempts to control Internet? Deputy
agrees with those who demand to stop the flow of uncontrolled information in
the web:
“They write
nasty things there and the main thing you don’t know how to reply to that. One
posts, others disseminate”.
However
Segey Gaidukevich is not sure how to influence Internet. The Deputy stands
against the proposal of the Draft Law where it says that the situation in the Internet
would be regulated by the Council of Ministers and other state agencies. The
Deputy insists that “it should only be regulated by Law, adopted by the
Parliament”.
There was
no reaction yet from the Ministry of Information regarding the criticism of the
Draft Law “on Media” by members of the Belarusian Journalist Association and
other representatives of civil society. The Radio Liberty managed to reach
Assistant to the Minister of Information, Mr Viktor Kozlov. Mr Kozlov informed
that he saw the Draft Law and that he couldn’t share BAJ concern in this
regard:
“Personally
I am happy with everything this document proposes. My position is that BAJ has
nothing to be concerned about”.
The
Assistant to the Minister of Information explained the necessity to adopt a new
law to regulate activities of the media:
“There were many changes in legislation recently, including administrative and criminal codes. The Media Law is out of date. In general, it constitutes normal legislative activity”.
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