New Belarusian Law on mass media does not correspond to OSCE standards - Hans-Johann Schmidt

The new Belarusian Law on mass media that will come into power on February 9, 2009 does not correspond to the OCSE standards. The head of Minsk office of the organization Hans-Johann Schmidt claimed it during a meeting with journalists before the beginning of an international conference “Online mass media: challenges of the 21st century” on November 24. The OSCE office of mass media freedom has criticized the legislation on mass media that will come into power in February. Miklash Harashti, OSCE representative on mass media freedom issues, thinks that the law does not correspond to OSCE standards, informed H-J. Schmidt.

At the same time the EU official highlighted that the discussion of the necessity of imposing control on the Internet was in process not only in Belarus but all over the world.

BelaPAN