House of Representatives: No Need to Amend Mass Media Law
The commission of the lower chamber of Parliament dealing with mass media relations finally sent a reply to BAJ Statement concerning administrative prosecution under art. 22.9.
The reply signed by Aliaksandr Naumovich, chairperson of the Permanent commission on human rights, national relations and mass media of the House of Representatives, says that “there is no need to introduce corrections into “legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of freedom of expression”. According to the reply, the parliamentary commission discussed the issue jointly with the Ministry of Information.
We remind that the statement was adopted by the Board of BAJ on September 26. The statement was sent also to the General Prosecutor's office, to the Ministry of the Interior and to the Supreme Court. The General Prosecutor's office replied that these were the aggrieved journalists who had to file complaints of the kind. The Ministry of the Interior addressed BAJ to courts and to the Information Ministry. The Supreme Court replied that a court's decision can be appealed by the journalists or their representatives; also reminded that there is a procedure of prosecutorial protest; and indicated that consideration of lawfulness of police's actions lies beyond their sphere of competence.
There has been already nine administrative cases initiated against BAJ members, freelancers contributing to foreign mass media without accreditation, under article 22.9 – Violating mass media legislation. Most cases end up with large fines. On October 28 the Mahilow Regional Court dismissed the appeal of Maryna Malchanava; now she will have to pay the fine of around 480$ for a publication on Belsat about a charity organization helping cancer-stricken children. In the appeal, the journalist underlined that the judge had worked under pressure, her case had been heard unobjectively and formally, and in her decision the judge violated the journalist's constitutional right to gather and disseminate information. However, the judge upheld the sentence.
Earlier in June Ales Zaleuski's analogical appeal was also dismissed.
In comments, deputy chair and lawyer of BAJ Andrei Bastunets said that the journalistic community would keep on demanding to amend mass media legislation.
"We see that the authorities are obviously unwilling to listen to either the journalistic community or to international structures who continuously demand to abolish the vicious practice of accrediting journalists who contribute to foreign mass media. Meantime, we think it is necessary to reiterate our view of the problem. We will keep helping BAJ members in appealing courts' sentences, and to apply to the UN Human Rights Committee and to push the state bodies towards changes for the application-based principle of accreditation.”
