The Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus # 60
"On the issues to improve making use of the national segment of Internet"

Unofficial translation

February 1 2010

Minsk

In order to ensure adequate protection for the individual, social and national interests within the information sphere, and to create favorable conditions for further development of the national segment of the world wide web system Internet, and to improve quality and availability of the information related to operation of the State administration organs and other organizations, and Internet services, as would be disclosed to the citizens and to the legal persons this is:

1. To promulgate that:

1.1. republican organs of the State administration, regional executive and managing organs, other State administration organs and State organizations, as well as business companies, which, due to being in possession of their equities (holding shares in their statutory capital), the Republic of Belarus or a regional administration unit are in power to control their decisions (if not defined otherwise - referred to further in this text as the State organizations and organs), shall be obliged to publish information about their operation in the Internet world wide web (referred to further in this text as Internet) in the official pages of these State organizations and organs or in the respective official pages of their superior State organizations and organs (referred to further in this text as Internet pages);

1.2. the State organizations and organs shall ensure the Internet pages to be created, operated and regularly up-dated basing on the information networks, systems and resources of the national segment of Internet located over territory of Belarus Republic and duly registered with the requirements specified in Section 3 of this Decree duly considered;

1.3. Internet pages of the State organizations and organs shall be edited in Russian and/or Belarusn language and, if necessary, in another one or several foreign languages. The State organizations exporting their products off the Belarus Republic borders shall additionally ensure their Internet pages being shown in one or in several foreign languages as necessary;

1.4. banner pages of the State organizations and organs shall show either directly or in the form of separate boxes, general information about the State organization or the organ (covering management staff, structure, discipline rules, tasks and functions, e-mail address, the very organization or organ information service telephone numbers, regional units et c.), and the information about the rules of conduct when handling the reports from citizens and legal persons, and on execution of administration procedures with respect to citizens, legal persons and individual businessmen, and information about the products (labor, services) provided (performed, rendered) by the State organization, as well as any other information controlled by the President of Republic of Belarus or by the Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus, or ordered in the decision of the Chief Office Holder of the State organization or the organ;

1.5. there shall not be shown on the Internet pages of the State organization and organs any information the public exchange and/or disclosure of which have been restricted in accordance with this Decree or any other legislative acts;

1.6. according to Sub-section 1.4 in this Section, the information shown in the Internet pages of the State organizations and organs shall be freely accessible. The State organizations and organs shall have no right to claim any charges for any information being made available;

1.7. the State organizations and organs shall regularly review frequencies of the visitors at their Internet pages and shall undertake proper steps to realize the citizens suggestions aiming in improvement of successful function of these pages. The Internet statistics shall be used for analysis of the visitors frequencies to Internet pages in accordance with the guidelines set by the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus.

The contents shown in the Internet pages of the State organizations and organs, as well as the methods of their performance shall meet the requirements specified by the Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus in co-ordination with Administration Office of the President of Republic of Belarus.

2. Starting July 1, 2010 the Internet linked business operations covering sale of goods, performance of labor, rendering services over territory of Republic of Belarus making use of the networks, systems and resources of information, shall be carried out through legal persons, or their subsidiaries or agencies established in accordance with the legislation applicable in Republic of Belarus, if their offices are set within territory of Republic of Belarus, but also through individual businessmen registered in Republic of Belarus (referred to further in this text as legal persons or individual businessmen), which make use of the networks, systems and resources of information of the national segment of Internet located over territory of Republic of Belarus and registered according to the recognized procedure.

3. Entries to the State register of the networks, systems and resources of information of the national segment of Internet located over territory of Republic of Belarus shall be made to the proposal of the Ministry of Communication and Informatization or through an organization duly authorized by this Ministry in consideration of the respective notice by the Internet service suppliers .

The list and forms of documents to be submitted by the Internet services providers as required for official entry to the State register of the networks, systems and resources of information of the national segment of Internet located over territory of Republic of Belarus, as well as the respective procedure of making the entry shall be as required by the Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus in co-ordination with the in the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus.

It is within the deadline of July 1, 2010, that legal persons and individual businessmen are obliged to link with the networks, systems and resources of information of the national segment of Internet, located over territory of Republic of Belarus, but the Internet service providers are obliged to officially enter their services in the State register.

4. Official State organs, other legal persons and individual businessmen including Internet service providers shall report to the Ministry of Communication and Informatization (or to respectively authorized organization) before July 1, 2010 the required information about the light pipe communication lines (except those installed within permanent structures (buildings, structures), which are their property, or their business or operation articles). The contents and form of this report shall be as required by the Ministry of Communication and Informatization.

Any light pipe communication lines (except those installed within permanent structures (buildings, structures)) to be commissioned for service, must obtain a permit from the Ministry of Communication and Informatization and from the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus in accordance with the procedure required by the Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus.

5. All the information about the light pipe communication lines, when received by the Ministry of Communication and Informatization (or by a respectively authorized organization) in accordance with passage one of Section 4 of this Decree, as well as that about the registered networks, systems and resources of information of the national segment of Internet shall be conveyed by the Ministry of Communication and Informatization to the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus through the procedure and in the scope as required by this Center.

6. Internet service providers shall identify and record the subscriber sets which the Internet services have been rendered to and shall keep the collected information about the subscriber sets as well as about these Internet services.

The owners of the collective Internet service outlets or the respectively authorized persons shall identify the users of the Internet services as rendered through the collective Internet service outlets and shall keep the records on personal data of the users of the Internet services as rendered through the Internet service outlets, as well as on the Internet services rendered through the collective Internet service outlets.

The information records as mentioned in passages one and two of this Section shall be kept for one year from the date the respective Internet service has been rendered on.

Information about the subscriber sets, and the personal data of Internet service users at the collective Internet service outlets as well as the information about the services rendered, shall be disclosed by the Internet service providers, and by the owners of the collective Internet service outlets or by the respectively authorized persons at any request of the police investigation/operation organs, or by Public Prosecutor organs or by the preliminary investigation organs, or by the State Control Committee organs, or by fiscal organs or by the courts within their respective legislative procedures.

Methods of identification of the subscriber sets and Internet service users in the collective Internet service outlets, as well as that of recording and filing of the information as mentioned in passages one and two of this Section shall be as required by the Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus.

7. Internet services required by the State organizations and organs, who use the State level confidential information, shall be rendered by the State service providers as qualified by the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus (referred to further in this text as authorized Internet service providers ).

Authorized Internet service providers shall protect the information appropriate to the State organizations and organs as specified in passage one of this Section.

Internet services required by the police investigation/operation organs shall be rendered by the authorized Internet service providers without the requirements specified in passages one through three in Section 6 of this Decree taken into consideration.

8. On request of the Internet service users the Internet service providers shall render restriction services effective in restraint of access to information the contents of which may lead to:

• extremist activities;
• illegal business consisting in sale or purchase of weapons, ammunition, explosives, radioactive substances, poisons, corrosives, toxins, drugs, psychotropic drugs or their precursors;
• assistance in illegal migration or slave trade;
• exchange of pornographic materials;
• propagation of violence, cruelty or other criminal offence.

Restriction services respective to access to other information may be rendered according to the agreement between the Internet service provider and the Internet service user.

Internet service providers, also including the authorized service providers, shall withhold access to the information mentioned in passage one of this Section, while rendering these services to the State organizations and organs (except of the organs mentioned in passage four of Section 6 of this Decree, to other State organizations and organs as specified by Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus), as well as to cultural and educational organizations.

9. The Internet service users may show in the Internet pages any pieces of literature, science, music, photography, audiovisual, art objects and other objects protected by the copyright and consequential rights as applicable within territory of Republic of Belarus, on the consent of their legal owners (unless otherwise stated in respective legislation acts), and under condition that any other legislation requirements of the copyright and consequential rights have been satisfied.

To show in the Internet and to spread the information messages and/or materials obtained from information agencies, or from any other means of mass information to be conveyed by Internet, hyperlinks must be used showing the address of the primary source or the materials yielding the information, should the legal owner of such messages and/or materials has not specified the communication requirements otherwise.

10. Any violation to the rules described under Sections 2 through 4, and 6 and 8 of this Decree shall be considered as gross violation of law and shall result in the liabilities specified in the legislation acts.

11. Should the police investigation/operation organs, or Public Prosecutor organs and preliminary investigation organs, or the State Control Committee, or fiscal organs within their competence scope, reveal any disturbances of the provisions of this Decree, or other legislation acts within the scope of making use of the national segment of Internet, the above organs shall require through the respective procedure the legal persons or individual businessmen, who did wrong, to put down these disturbances within the deadlines set by these organs.

The order to put down the revealed disturbances shall be signed by the Chief Office Holder of the respective organ (or his respective regional organ or structural unit according to the respective competence scope) or by his authorized deputy officer.

Should there be revealed a gross violation of law with respect to Section 10 of this Decree, or repeated offences against other provisions of this Decree, or against the other legislation provisions within the scope of making use of the national segment of Internet within six months from the date of the order to put down the revealed disturbances, the Internet services which might have been rendered to the legal person of individual businessman, can be suspended by the respective Internet service provider to request of the organs mentioned in passage one of this Section.

The order to have the Internet service suspended shall be issued in writing and shall be signed by the Chief Office Holder of the respective organ (except for regional organ, or structural unit), or by his authorized deputy officer.

The order of suspension of the Internet services shall be issued for a period indispensable to put down the revealed disturbances, but not longer than one month.

The Interned service provider shall be obliged to execute such order of suspension of Internet service within 24 hours since received and to inform the organ issuing the order of suspension of the Internet service within 24 hours since receiving such communication.

Internet services shall be resumed for a legal person or for an individual businessman by the Internet service provider once he has received a written notice to do so from the same organ, by which the suspension order had been issued, within 24 hours from the receipt of this notice at the latest.

The order to put down the disturbances or the request to suspend Internet services may be appealed through the court procedure in accordance with respective legislation.

12. Responsibility for the contents of the information shown (conveyed) in the national segment of Internet shall fall on the persons who have shown (conveyed) the information, but responsibility for disturbance of the provisions of this Decree, also including responsibility for non-performance of the order (request) issued by the respective organ in accordance with Section 11 of this Decree - on Internet service providers, the owners (or their proxies) of the collective Internet service outlets.

13. To announce, that the official State organ specifically authorized to act within the sphere of security in making use of the national segment of Internet shall be the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus which shall:

coordinate operation of the State organs, as well as the Internet service providers in the scope of security of information in the process of making use of the networks, systems and resources of information within national segment of Internet;

control, in agreement with the President of Republic of Belarus, the list of the telecommunication operators qualified for the right to take part in the international traffic and to link with telecommunication networks of the alien States;

control, in common with the Ministry of Communication and Informatization, the restriction procedures for access of the Internet service users to the information qualified according to legislative acts as prohibited for public exchange;

control the domain name registration procedure within the scope of hierarchy names in the national segment of Internet;

represent Republic of Belarus in the relevant international organizations with respect to security of the process of making use of the national segment of Internet;

perform the other powers of authorization according to this Decree and to other legislative acts.

14. To require that Council of Ministers of Republic of Belarus shall:

14.1. within May 1 2010:

analyze and prepare procedure for obligatory certification of the Internet services, and for arrangement of permanent position of the Internet services in the specification of the licensed communication business activities, and for due specification of the respective license requirements and the Internet service business requirements;

define:

in agreement with the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus, the operating mode of the Internet pages held by the State organizations and organs as well as the requirements applicable to the contents shown in the Internet pages held by the State organizations and organs;

in agreement with the Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus, the procedure of the State registration of networks, systems and information resources of the national segment of Internet, as located within the territory of Republic of Belarus, as well as the list of and the forms to be filled to declare the kinds of Internet services rendered by the Internet service providers as should be required for the entry of the documents in the State register;

the procedure for commissioning of the new and/or the rebuilt light pipe communication lines (except those installed in permanent structures (buildings, structures);

the procedure for identification of the subscriber sets, as well as the users of Internet services at the collective Internet service outlets, and for making and keeping respective records including personal data of the Internet service users as well as information about the Internet services that have been rendered;

the procedure for entering the retail trade Internet shops in the Trade Register of Republic of Belarus as well as the mechanism of their operation control;

14.2. within July 1, 2010:

prepare a complex of effective means of reduction of the Internet services costs in the national segment of Internet;

adjust the legislation acts to this Decree and apply other means of implementation of these;

14.3. within December 31, 2010:

prepare a draft for the Internet National Segment Development Plan intending to improve the quality and availability of Internet services as rendered to the citizens and legal persons and submit this draft to the President of Republic of Belarus for approval;

analyze issues for improvement of protection standards applicable to copyright and consequential rights objects when shown in the Internet, and for good arrangement methods for the advertisements to be shown in the Internet pages and to submit respective suggestions to the President of Republic of Belarus for approval;

in common with National Legislation and Law Research Center, and Operational/Analytical Center under personal direction of the President of Republic of Belarus, and Public Prosecutor General, and National Security Committee and all the other involved State organs: prepare the draft of a legislative act intending to improve execution procedures with respect to the liability for the administration or criminal or other type of disturbance of the provisions of this Decree and of any other legislation acts related to making use of the national segment of Internet, and submit this draft in due course to the House of National Assembly Representatives of Republic of Belarus.

15. Personal responsibility for observation of Section 1 of this Decree shall fall on the Chief Office Holders of the respective State organizations and organs.

16. The Decree shall be effective July 1, 2010 except passage three in Section 3 and passage one in Section 4, which shall be effective May 1, 2010 and Sections 13 and 14 and this Section, which shall be effective on the day this Decree has been officially published.

President of Republic of Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko

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