Several laws adopted in recent years restrict the work of journalists. Kaiyrgul Urumkanova, CEO of Govori.TV, reported at parliamentary hearings to discuss the draft law «On Mass Media».
She noted that over the past few years, a number of laws regulating the activities of the media have been signed.
«But only one draft law was developed with the participation of representatives of the media. Other laws are trying to restrict our work. These are laws on slander, the provision on foreign agents. There are many restrictions. But we thank the president for discussing the draft law on the media here. He invited us to a dialogue, we voiced our dissatisfaction with the first version of this document and as a result, we developed a compromise version,» Kaiyrgul Urumkanova said.
In addition, she asked to review the norm, which states that state bodies (except for defense and national security bodies) provide information about their activities to the media upon editorial requests within three working days.
According to the journalist, defense and national security bodies, like other departments, must respond to correspondents’ requests within three days, and they should not have advantages over others.
«Because non-disclosure of state and other secrets is spelled out in other laws and articles,» she explained.
A compromise version of the bill on the media was submitted to the Parliament for consideration in January. This is the sixth version of the law on the media. It was revised by the Ministry of Culture together with the media community and lawyers. The document provides for a ban on censorship, protection of sources of information. It also specifies the norms in which cases the activities of the media can be terminated or suspended.
