By Olga Anischenko: Today, the Belarusian parliament began considering amendments to the main document for all journalists – the Law on Mass Media. And today the law passed the first reading. The new proposals are mostly about the work of Internet resources in the future, as well as about those posting comments online. From now on, everyone who makes posts on the Internet is offered a voluntary registration. Thus, the journalist will receive an equal status with other media and will be responsible for the reliability of the data.
Universal legislation concerning the liability for the data and its reliability is crucial today. It means protection from false rumors and fake news.
Andrei Krivosheev, the secretary of the Belarusian Union of Journalists, political commentator of Belteleradiocompany: "The most striking example of fake news in Belarus was the fake news about the terrorist attack in the Minsk Metro. At that time, the news was coming from several sources, and some of them reported the information incorrectly. Unfortunately, this is the problem of the modern information society. It is well known that fake news spreads quickly – 6 times quicker than regular verified news."
Also, the Ministry of Information launches voluntary registration for online media. It means if an online source has violated the law, access to it will not be restricted immediately. The media will receive a warning twice or even more times. If there is no registration, then an online media will only be warned once.
Deputies do not share any details about their work yet, but there are still lots of suggestions and comments. The second reading is expected to clarify matters.












