An activist of the rally staged in Moscow in support of liberty of speech and mass media holds a poster reading: "We Will Protect Mass Media Against Pressure of Authorities!"
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Mass Media Act Not to Be Amended
There will be no new Act on Mass Media, as there is no need in it. But a package of special regulations to govern the media of the country should be shaped instead, said members of the first meeting of Russia’s working group set up by the State Duma’s United Russia faction exactly to elaborate the new wording of the Act on Mass Media.
The Act on Mass Media has remained actually unchanged since 1991. Members of United Russia attempted to amend it in April, specifying mass media’s liability for the slander dissemination. The mastermind of the amendment was Robert Shlegel, the youngest legislator from United Russia.
United Russia first backed up the colleague and passed the bill in the first reading, but then criticized the bill and blocked it when it was being elaborated for the second reading. In the end, United Russia set up a taskforce that was committed to forge a new variant by November.
“As an end in itself, passing a new bill on mass media hasn’t been set, thanks God,” Journalist Union Secretary Mikhail Fedotov, who is the mastermind of the current Act on Mass Media, announced during the first meeting of the working group.
“The current Act on Mass Media is fundamental,” explained State Duma First Vice Speaker Oleg Morozov, who heads the working group. It calls for some changes due to “the timely novation that couldn’t have been foreseen 17 years ago,” Morozov pointed out, adding that the package of new regulations is needed to define certain sectors of media area.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 11, 2008
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