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Andrei Bastunets: Amendments to the law "On the Media" are even tougher than we could imagine

Andrei Bastunets: Amendments to the law "On the Media" are even tougher than we could imagine

From January 1, 2015 year Belarusian media will operate under new rules.

The amendments to the law on media, published a few days after their adoption, leave such a wide field of fantasy of the future of our media.

Mediakritika.by asked the Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) to comment on it.

Andrei Bastunets recognizes that the published text of the amendments to the law has unpleasantly impressed him. "It's even tougher than we could imagine," Bastunets does not hide his emotions.

"In many places the law may be interpreted in different ways. Now it is not clear what a new approach will be to television and radio content on the Internet. I hope it may not come to that, but according to the text it can be concluded that the license requirement may apply to the resources, creating this kind of content", the Deputy Chairman of the BAJ pointed out.

In addition, Andrei Bastunets says the ability to close Internet resources after two warnings from the Ministry of information has been quite clouded before the amendments have been imposed to the law.

"It is clear that this is not the only option. In fact, the law says that web sites can be blocked in case of violation of other laws related to the dissemination of information, regardless of the number of warnings. It stands to reason that this provision in the law addresses the resources outside of the Republic of Belarus. They will henceforward be blocked legally", Andrei Bastunets emphasizes.

According to the lawyer, in the near future it is expected a complete restriction of citizens' access to web sites of the so-called "black list". It applies to "Charter 97" and "Belarusian partisan". Earlier, the access to them was blocked in state and educational institutions, enterprises.

As for the frightening regulations on establishment of state register of distributors according to the lawyer "the editorial office can sigh with relief ".

"The obligation to be included in the State register does not apply to the editorial offices, disseminating their own products. But the rule likely affects providers or "Belposhta", or editorial offices, distributing the products of other media", Andrei Bastunets said.

At the same time, an open question remains about aggregator sites, but, as Andrei Bastunets believes, the provision will unlikely apply to them. It is not clear whether the requirement will affect private distributors and small press publishings.

According to Bastunets, it is hard to find out positive moments in the sea of questions and guesses bound with it.

"If you look for some positive points in the amended law, so it's good that the authorities refused the registration of online media with applications to them all those requirements that apply to other media. But here is the catch, as press distributors were brought to justice for not being legal entities and not entering into an agreement on the distribution media, so now it is quite conceivable that it will be possible to put pressure on the resources made by citizens in the domain zone by as the law says that the editorial office should be a legal entity. I would not like to say it out loud, but we have this catch in the law and it may react. But if the Internet resources are legal entities, on this basis they may provide their journalists with staff passes, accreditation, etc.", the Deputy Chairman of the BAJ emphasized.

According to Andrei Bastunets, the BAJ soon will hold its examination of the law, and will initiate his discussion at a round table with representatives of the Ministry of Information.

"Let us explain what we do not understand," the Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists said.

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