We are offered some other amendments to the law

While many years of work on a new media law are still underway, the Ministry of Information and Public Development, without much ado, developed and posted on the open government portal the concept of a new project of... additions and amendments to legislative acts on information. According to anonymous authors the document was developed on behalf of high officials. Two weeks are given for discussion - until April 12. Bekzat Rakhimov, who was the director of the state media policy department of the Ministry of Information and Communications explained by phone that "Nobody canceled the work on a fundamentally new law, but this is a  long-term matter, and there are other urgent tasks” (he now has another position in the reorganized ministry). What urgent tasks does the concept project solve?

The first three innovations of the Concept concern television.

1. The authors are  incensed over the fact that “the level of OTAU TV broadcasting remains low in comparison with the UFSO / unregistered foreign satellite operators ”, grieving that “citizens of Kazakhstan using foreign satellite receivers live outside the information space of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. In order to improve the situation, it is proposed to punish citizens for installation of UFSO, and so that no one escapes the punishment, “to authorize the  local executive bodies to detect the above violations”. What about the right of citizens to unimpeded access to information? Who has the right to encroach on the Constitution, deciding for us what we will watch?

2. Our modest Authorized Body may be given new powers, namely, to interfere in the activities of television and radio companies that have state money in the authorized capital. As the authors of the concept believe, this will allow them to expand the audience and provide the audience with quality information.

3. The third proposal concerns all media and it is the most attractive - to allow advertising of low-alcohol products. This was already included in the draft amendments of 2017 but the Ministry of Internal Affairs, vigorously struggling with alcoholism, objected to it, and that proposal was removed.

4. Black holes gaped in the place of foreign advertising at relaying foreign channels since the ban for such advertising came into effect. Now it is proposed to fill the gaps with permitted advertising.

5. It is stated that “the authorized body does not actually have mechanisms to adjust the distribution of the information order”. It is proposed to remove the regional state information order from the public procurement system, for two years while these mechanisms would be under development. It's like a gift to local media outlets that often don’t see any money other than the money from local authorities. Besdies the possibility of tax benefits is also mentioned but the Republican Budget Commission and other bodies should approve it. Types of benefits are not specified, but hope is given.

6. The largest and most detailed point of the Concept is about the access to information. The research “Ensuring access of citizens and professional media community to information in Kazakhstan: regions and centers” done by Bilim LLP last year under the state order of the ministry was used in it. Both the research and the Concept say a lot about the draw backs of the law “On Access to Information” and its implementation making references to OECD. As a result, it is proposed to include a couple of terms into the law and to take take care of the powers of the Ministry of Information: “it is necessary to define the competence of the authorized body at the legislative level”. But the same thing mentioned for several times in the OECD Concept that states: there is no administrative responsibility for violating the deadline for providing information on requests, there is no criminal liability for deliberate violation of the right to access information, there are no provisions in the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Access to Information” that protect informants. OECD recommends to close these gaps.

What is the bottom line? Officials will have more power, journalists will be under even tighter supervision and control, and will get some vague promises of some benefits, citizens will get more carefully selected and censored "correct information".

Adil Soz posted this text in the comments section of the website of open regulatory acts https://legalacts.egov.kz/npa/view?id=2324601. Shall we continue the discussion?