The Council of Europe to Evaluate the Newly Adopted Belarus’ Law “On Mass Media”

The Council of Europe will examine the accordance of the Law «On Mass Media», adopted by the Lower Chamber of Belarusian Parliament, with the existing international standards. This statement got declared during a meeting of Sub-committee on the Media at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on media situation in Belarus, held in Strasbourg on June 24, 2008.
The Sub-committee members took into consideration a protocol and a resolution of the Conference on Democratization of Mass Media in Belarus, held in Warsaw on June 6–7, 2008.

Andrei Aliaksandrau, an official representative of Belarusian Association of Journalists and a BAJ Council member took part in the meeting. He expressed deep concern with the perspective of adoption of a new media law in Belarus that complicates significantly the Belarusian citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of speech and deteriorates the working conditions for media outlets and journalists in the country.

It should be reminded that the draft media law got severely criticized by the BAJ media experts as contradicting the Constitution and other Belarusian laws as well as the country’s international liabilities.

Andrew McIntosh, the Chairman of Sub-committee on the Media at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly noted during the meeting that the Council of Europe could hold an expert examination in order to define correspondence of the draft law, supported by the Lower Chamber of Belarusian Parliament to international standards in the field.

It was stated during the meeting that the draft media law had been examined by the OSCE Representative’s on Media Freedom Office in Minsk. The OSCE experts expressed numerous critical remarks, regarding the legal act.

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