Adil Soz: New Kurultai rules restrict journalists’ rights

The Kurultai has changed the rules governing journalists’ work: reporters are now expected to ask members of parliament questions only in the press centre, effectively eliminating the customary practice of speaking with them in the corridors.

Sergei Utkin, a lawyer with the International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz”, believes the new restrictions are part of a broader trend towards narrowing journalists’ opportunities to obtain information of public interest.

According to Utkin, the groundwork for such restrictions was laid in the new Law “On Mass Media”. Compared with the previous law, journalists were given additional obligations to comply with access-control and internal security procedures at particularly important state and strategic facilities, as well as with professional ethics standards.

“It was clear from the outset that the state intended to use these two obligations to deal with journalists it considered undesirable by restricting their rights as much as possible,” the Foundation’s lawyer said.

Later, the Ministry of Culture and Information approved standard accreditation rules requiring journalists to comply with the regulations governing an event.

“Those regulations could include virtually anything aimed at restricting the work of journalists deemed undesirable. Now the Kurultai’s accreditation rules clearly demonstrate that independent journalists are not welcome there and that every effort is being made to restrict their rights,” Sergei Utkin noted.

According to the lawyer, restrictions on audio recording, photography and video recording raise a separate legal issue. Under the Kurultai regulations, journalists may freely record and film only in the press centre, while in other areas they must obtain permission from the press service.

“However, Subparagraph 3 of Paragraph 3 of Article 26 of the Law ‘On Mass Media’ explicitly states that journalists have the right to make audio recordings, take photographs and record video anywhere, except in cases prohibited by law. The Kurultai rules are not a law, and therefore they cannot impose a ban on journalists making audio recordings, taking photographs or filming. At the same time, advising journalists simply to disregard this requirement would also be risky, because tomorrow they could be stripped of their accreditation, while a compliant court might simply ignore the contradiction between the rules and the law. This, apparently, is what the principle of ‘Law and Order’, now enshrined in the Constitution, looks like,” Utkin stressed.

The lawyer does not, however, advise journalists simply to ignore the requirements of the regulations. Violating the rules could result in the loss of accreditation, while a subsequent legal challenge would not guarantee that the journalist’s rights would be restored.

Adil Soz notes that restrictions on journalists’ access to members of parliament and on their ability to independently take photographs and record video affect not only the working conditions of the media, but also the public’s access to information about the activities of the country’s highest representative body.