Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 9 April (BelTA) – Amendments to the Law on Mass Media are required by the Belarusian society, Belarus’ Information Minister Alexander Karlyukevich said in an interview to the STV TV channel on 8 April, BelTA has learned.

The minister drew attention to the fact that the public had repeatedly spoken out about the unlawful nature of numerous information messages posted on the internet. “Citizens of our country express their opinion, make their suggestions, require to restrict access, close this or that resource,” said Alexander Karlyukevich.

Speaking about the significance of the changes, the information minister stressed that they are designed to “bring everything into the legislative order.”

The updated law provides that online publications will include Internet resources that have undergone voluntary state registration with the Information Ministry. They will be on an equal footing with the traditional media: enjoy the same rights and fulfill the same duties, bear social and legal responsibility for the information they post. “Everyone will work under the same conditions,” the minister explained. The owner of such a resource will be able to hire journalists who will receive the same rights as employees of traditional media.

Alexander Karlyukevich commented on such a novelty as the identification of users who post information on internet resources.

The information minister added that similar and even more stringent legislative norms are in force in foreign countries. In Belarus, the development of such a draft law will become another step towards the unification of the national law with the legislation of the EAEU.