President’s decree to regulate internet-based media?
The official who asked not to be named read out the text of the decree draft to the European Radio for Belarus. The document introduces a nation of “web-based media organizations”. They must be registered and regulated by the general law on the media. However, the draft decree has no mention of registration procedures and responsibilities.
“The mass media that regularly gather, store, process and disseminate information through the global or other information networks, their editorial offices having a status of a producer and a distributor, are subjected to the state registration, according to the approved procedure. A legal entity which create a media organization and post it in the networks can act as an editorial office of a web-based media organization.
ERB: Will registration be based on the permissive or applicative principle? Will it be mandatory?
“Nothing is written regarding either a permissive or an applicative procedure. It simply says that they “are subjected to registration”. It doesn’t mention any procedure.
ERB: Is the talk about the by domain only or about the internet in general?
“There is nothing like that”.
ERB: Does it stipulate responsibility for not registering a web-based media organization?
“It is not there. The document is very raw. It is basically a framework. Most likely, it will be revised. There are just three pages now”.
In order to register a web-based media organization, it is required to found a legal entity, to write an application and to bring a standard set of founding documents. The web sites of the government agencies require no registration.
“The registration is not required for the mass media which are the analogues of the printed media, news reports, and materials about physical entities which post them independently in the global network”.
The document has been drafted by the Information Ministry. The draft is signed by a person named Khrystsich. However, the ministry pretends as if they do not know anything. Khrystsich declines a comment, while his boss Aliaksandr Karachun says that he is not sure that there will be such a presidential decree.
“Nobody can say that there will be a decree or any other document. Nobody knows what it will eventually turn into and how the concerned parties will express their take on this”, Karachun said.
Various documents are adopted in various ways. If we are talking about a law, it is passed in the two readings in the parliament. The law also has more procedures and provisions than a decree.
The official who told the European Radio for Belarus about this decree noted that such a vague draft can be pushed around for a long time unless someone will lobby for it.
Why does the government want to regulate the internet publications by a decree? Logic suggests that the web-based media should be regulated by the law on the media. Mikhail Darashevich, the director of e-belarus.org, believes the authorities are in a hurry.
“If this is a law, it should be put on the legislation schedule for instance for this year. There is no such a legislation planned in 2008. This means it could emerge in 2009. Passing legislation requires at least one year. It appears that the law on the internet can appear not earlier than 2010. Apparently, the government wants to introduce some restrictive measures quickly. Perhaps, it is somehow linked with the political campaign in the neighboring country.
Mikhail Darashevich says the web-based media can hardly be under a total control. Moreover, it is impossible to control the media based outside Belarus.
“There is a huge number of international services where one can run the web-based media without a registration in Belarus. They can’t have them filtered! But this will allow to introduce restrictions on the operation of editorial offices. The ones that will be registered as on-line media organization will become less independent”, Darashevich said.
