The Committee on Budget, Economic and Fiscal Policy of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved the draft law «On the Media», taking into account a dissenting opinion.
The draft law was presented personally by the Minister of Culture Altynbek Maksutov. According to him, in the second reading the wishes of media experts and journalists will be taken into account; in particular, they are ready to remove from the document the clause regarding media accreditation in all government agencies.
Deputy Kamila Talieva was indignant that the head of the Legal Support Department of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers of the administration of the head of state and the head of the working group on the draft law, Murat Ukushev, did not come to the committee meeting.
Her colleague Elvira Surabaldieva was outraged by the clause on the responsibility of the media for the dissemination of information.
«News was spread recently about the closure of a sex den, where the photos of girls were published without covering their eyes. If this law is passed, journalists will be held accountable, and the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who provided the photographs will remain unpunished. As far as I know, in such cases not a single official was properly punished,» the deputy noted.
After long discussions, deputies adopted the concept of the bill, taking into account dissenting opinion. Parliament members intend to submit their proposals in the second reading.
It should be noted that the bill developed by the presidential administration was submitted to the Parliament in early January. This is the fifth version of the document; it was finalized by members of the working group formed by order of the head of state Sadyr Japarov in December 2022. However, the draft law was not finalized, agreed upon or approved by all members of the working group. There was no clause-by-clause discussion.
