Wait and you will receive the law as a gift

At the demand of Adil Soz, the Ministry of Information and Communications sent a "Report on the study of domestic and foreign legislation and experience in the field of media regulation and broadcasting." It’s not posted on the ministry’s website, so  we publish it at http://www.adilsoz.kz/politcor/show/id/242/parent/2 with the permission of the authorized body.

The ministry paid for this study over 13 million tenge and a preliminary discussion of this research caused a lot of doubts to put it mildly. The reearch is large, 170 pages, but we advise you to be patient and read to, and you will find a lot of interesting things there.

The ideas it contains are very democratic. The authors honestly acknowledged the “high degree of legal regulation of public relations occuring in the course of media activities,” the inconsistency of responsibility for libel with international standards, the inefficiency of state information order, etc.

They have studied a lot of literature and well described world problems and researches related to the penetration of the Internet into our lives.

The recommendations do not inspire optimism. Very few of them are concrete, and most of the recommendations are fed on zealous concern for the secrecy of personal life. For example: “it should be stipulated that a person who has information that someone intends to disseminate information or images related to his/her private life may initiate an emergency legal process, such as a simplified procedure of temporary court order to cease the dissemination of such information, based on the court’s evaluation of the cause of the claim on intrusion upon privacy. ” “In general, Kazakhstan has created a sufficient legislative base to ensure citizens’ information rights, ”- the researchers hired by the ministry state. Their conclusion is:“ The main problem in ensuring the citizens’ information rights in Kazakhstan is the exact separation of freedom of opinion and privacy. In order to legally establish a balance between these two fundamental rights, it is advisable to legally provide the right to be forgotten in the law on personal data, and to bring the legislation on mass media in line with the legislation on personal data.”

Nothing is said about the obstacles in establishing new media, unreasonable restrictions and punishments, devastating compensations, but there is cheap flattery to the client - the Ministry of Information and Communications. It is surprising that the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan is missing from the list of reference legal links (Isn't it the reason why unintentional infliction of emotional distress was left unattended?). The idea that “the fact that the Information Kazakhstan 2020 program has ceased to exist may indicate early achievement of the set priorities,” seems to lack logics and the very composition of the research looks dissonant.

But this is not the main thing. The main thing is that this study, according to Bekzat Rakhimov, Director of the Department of State Media Policy, will be the basis for the new media law. “What it (the law) will be like - we are still thinking about it. We conducted research and now we are at the stage of receiving results. Initially, there will be an interdepartmental discussion, where we will decide which version to present to the public for discussion. It will be a new law on mass media, maybe it will be the law “On Mass Communication” or a law that will unify laws on mass media and on television and radio broadcasting. Perhaps it will be a code on information issues, where several separate chapters will be devoted to the media. There are plenty of options, ” he explained at the XI Media Congress (https://forbes.kz/massmedia/ministerstvo_informatsii_hochet_bolshe_regulirovat_internet/).

And what about other studies that were made by world-renowned experts? Noting is said about them. What about the recommendations of the OSCE, UN, UNESCO? Some of them are mentioned in the study,  2-3 phrases are cited, but in general those recommendations were put aside. And what about national independent experts and journalists?

Last year, “Adil Soz” offered to the ministry to start the work on the new law together and received an answer: wait until the government decides on the concept, it will take a long time to do. Everyone must silently wait till the interdepartmental hangout gives birth to the new bill and presents it to us. That's when we will be allowed to bark on the official caravan that is moving on.