Belarusians won’t be able to know the truth about lawlessness of the authorities

The Belarusian “parliament” is to review the draft law on media in the first reading today. Independent experts think if the law is adopted as it is drafted now, the independent press will get irreparable blow.

Meanwhile, Natallya Pyatkevich, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, tried to calm the “MPs” when introducing the draft to the “parliament”. She said the new draft law “didn’t tighten the responsibility.”

The draft law have been prepared in closed regime for 5 years at the suggestion of the Presidential Administration. He was introduced to the Belarusian “parliament” on 10 June and the next day the date of its reviewing was appointed - 17 June.

It is worthy to notice that the Belarusian Association of Journalists managed to get acquainted with the draft law text only last weekend. Having analysed the draft law on media on Friday, the BAJ lawyers came to a disappointing conclusion that if the law is adopted as it is drafted now, the independent press will get irreparable blow, which will make it difficult for them to survive and lead to eliminating of independent media in the country.

The fact that adoption of the draft law can lead to blocking of all Internet-media that are not registered in Belarus, triggers great concern. Moreover, activity of Internet-resources will be regulated not by laws but by acts of the Council of Ministers.

However, “it doesn’t mean the government regulations on this issue are expected tomorrow or in half year. There may be no such regulation at all,” Pyatkevich has recently said in this connection.

“This draft law doesn’t contain anything that violate, forbid or restrict something,” Natallya Pyatkevich thinks.

However, according to N. Pyatkevich, “if there is acute need and the Internet-media become a problem, if their number increases so that regulation is needed, frames of their activity will be well-defined.”

In the meantime, according to the draft law on media, a list of violations, which are subject to warnings, is blurred and unlimited, and activity of printed edition can be suspended after only one notice. Moreover, not only the Ministry of Information but also any judge, prosecutor and official can deliver warnings.

Belarusian high-rank officials have recently spoken for hardening of the law on media. In particular, Liliya Ananich, deputy minister of information, said Belarus had 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.”

Aleh Pralyaskouski, director of the Information Analytical Center at the Presidential Administration, insists on necessary “increasing of responsibility for information on the Internet” and offers to place responsibility for spreading information via the Internet on a website’s administrator and an owner of Internet resource and a provider.

At present, there are no independent printed editions in Belarus. Radio and TV are controlled by the authorities. The Internet is the only source of alternative information. But it is obvious, after the draft law will be adopted, there will remain no independent media in the country, and people won’t be able to get true information about the events in the country. Moreover, it happens ahead of the parliamentary elections and hasty construction of a nuclear power plant!