«The basis for termination of media activities may be violation of the law more than twice during a year. We would like this norm to be removed,» said Kaktus.Media founder Dina Maslova, presenting the revised sixth version of the bill on media.
She noted that over the course of a year, claims may arise against the media outlets due to far-fetched circumstances. «The group’s work was a compromise. In the end, for some reason, this point remained,» Dina Maslova said.
The draft law states that the court may terminate the activities of the media.
In early March the President of Kyrgyzstan held a closed meeting with the heads of leading media outlets and well-known journalists. Representatives of the media raised, among other things, the issue of the media law. Sadyr Japarov promised to look into it.
On March 13, spokesman for the president Askat Alagozov announced that, on the instructions of the head of state, the bill on mass media, which was adopted in the first reading by a parliamentary committee, was withdrawn.
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 created 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.
The working group on the new media law included five people from the presidential administration: the head of the Legal Support Department Murat Ukushev, a department expert, representatives of the Legal Department, the press service and the Ministry of Culture, as well as 15 media representatives.
