New mass media law turned down - Kazakhstani
president
The law on the mass media adopted by the parliament
recently is turned down. This was said by Kazakhstani President
Nursultan Nazarbaev at the 3-rd Eurasian media forum (EMF) in Almaty
on Thursday.
The president stressed that the Constitution Council on Wednesday
recognized a number of norms of the draft as not corresponding to
the Constitution.
"Yesterday night I came back from the foreign visit. I received the
decision of the Constitution Council that recognized some norms of
the draft as not corresponding to the Constitution", Nazarbaev said.
"As known, I, as the head of the state, have a right to bring in
objection i.e. veto the decision of the Council. And if the
Constitution Council does not overcome my veto with 2/3 of its
votes, the law will be considered adopted", he said. "But taking
into account purely legal aspects of the situation, taking into
account the opinion of the public and journalists, I decided not to
bring objection to the decision of the Constitution Council",
Nazarbaev stressed.
Therefore, he summarized, "the new law on mass media is considered
as turned down".
As reported, Kazakhstani president directed a new law on mass media
adopted by the parliament on March 18, to the Constitution Council
on March 31. According to the Constitution, the Council decides
within a month's term since the submission date. The term can be
shortened to 10 days if the issue is urgent.
The republic's Information Ministry, the draft's developer, said
earlier that the document has more perfect mechanism of strict
obeisance of the Constitution by the mass media. At the same time
the representatives of a number of mass media, lawyers, and experts
of domestic and foreign political, public and journalist
organizations criticized the draft. Moreover the leaders of four
parties in Kazakhstan - Ak Zhol, Asar, Aul and Patriot's party
addressed the president asking to veto the mass media law.
April 22, 2004 Interfax Kazakhstan
http://www.interfax.kz/eng/index.php?id=news&newsid=3
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