Republic

OSCE praises Belarus’ information bill

OSCE representatives have praised the work of the Belarusian parliamentarians on the draft law “On information, informatization and information protection”. The statement to this effect was made at a meeting between the officials of the OSCE Office in Minsk and Belarusian parliamentarians on March 26. Thus, according to Chief of the OSCE Office in Minsk Hans Jochen Schmidt, it is imperative to continue the discussion of the draft law and to pave the way for the exchange of opinions with the experts. “Cooperation shows we have mutual interests. The draft law is a good example to follow by other CIS countries in developing similar laws,” he said. Roland Bless, the Director of the OSCE Representative Office on Freedom of the Media, thanked the Belarusian parliamentarians for constructive cooperation and noted that all OSCE important proposals have been taken into account in the draft law. Roland Bless positively valued the fact that the finalized document reduces the number of information categories which distribution is forbidden or restricted and shortens the list of official reasons for prohibition of information distribution. “The mission of mass media is to bring information to people. Information is not the property of the state but that of the people,” Roland Bless asserts. Roland Bless finds it important to preserve pluralism of opinions and respect the standpoint of the minority. According to Roland Bless, the freedom of opinions should be constrained only if it leads to crime. “Criticizing the government is not a crime. The obligation of the government to ensure the freedom of information is the basis of the civil society,” the OSCE representative said. Anatoly Pavlovich, the chairman of the permanent commission for industry, fuel-energy complex, communications and business undertakings of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, noted that the draft law lies upon four major principles: freedom, efficient administrative work, protection of privacy and national interests. According to the parliamentarian, the finalized draft law cuts down the number of reference rules and defines the conceptual mechanism. “We are open for a dialogue and do not hurry to adopt the law that was submitted for consideration of the parliament on March 1, 2007 in order to take into account all opinions,” Anatoly Pavlovich noted.