Belarus preparing new Internet restrictions

23/09/2017

According to Interfax-Ukraine Belarus is going to make adjustments to the documents that regulate the Internet, Belarusian Communications and Informatization Minister Sergei Popkov said.

“There will be nothing super-tough […] You know that it’s impossible to close the Internet […] There are absolutely no new approaches here […] All countries have the same approaches now: to protect citizens against the influence of negative information as much as possible,” Popkov told a press conference in Minsk.

He said it is now too early to speak about the details.

The document in question is the presidential decree on the improvement of the procedures for using the information space.

Popkov confirmed that work is being done on such a document and that the Communications and Informatization Ministry is involved. The minister said the document may be drafted before the end of this year.

There are many documents regulating the work of the Internet in Belarus, and the document will only make some adjustments, he said.

“I want to say that this is generally an area for the Information Ministry. The Communications and Informatization Ministry is a technical body; its task is to fulfill what exists in the legislation. Yes, we are indeed involved in this process. But the law is interpreted by those who develop it. We are not the main body working on this document,” Popkov said.

The Belarusian presidential operative-analytical center said earlier, in response to an inquiry from the Belarusian Association of Journalists, that the Communications and Informatization Ministry had drafted a presidential decree on the improvement of the procedures for using the information space. It envisages procedures governing the restriction of access to sites containing banned information or information whose dissemination is limited by legislative acts.

Useful links:

https://www.kyivpost.com/world/belarus-preparing-new-internet-restrictions.html

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