The Agency for Information and Mass Communications informed Kun.uz that about 100 proposals and objections from the public will be studied and relevant parts of the draft Information Code will be worked out. Also, after the legal expertise of the Justice Ministry, the agreed draft text will be sent to international organizations such as the OSCE for study.
About 80 suggestions and comments were made by journalists, bloggers and activists regarding the draft of the Information Code, which was announced for public discussion on December 14-29, 2022. According to the AIMC, after studying each of these proposals and objections, relevant areas of the project will be worked out and resubmitted to the Ministry of Justice for legal examination.
Also, by March-April 2023, the text of the project, which has undergone legal expertise and been agreed upon by the Ministry of Justice, will be delivered to international experts, such as the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the representative on mass media issues, for study.
In May-June, the draft Code, prepared on the basis of proposals of international organizations, will be discussed in the form of a roundtable discussion with the participation of media representatives and journalists.
AIMC added that after the draft of the Information Code is submitted to the Oliy Majlis and passed by the Legislative Chamber in the first reading, the text of the draft should be published on the official website of the lower chamber. This procedure is established in Article 15 of the Law "On the Regulations of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis" and in Articles 142 of the Regulations of the Lower Chamber.
For information, the discussed Information Code consists of 131 articles and unifies 8 laws in the field. The document aims to regulate the processes of information use, free and unhindered search, receipt and distribution of information in Uzbekistan.
The draft Information Code, which is under discussion, contains loopholes to censor, hide information and punish the media. There are also news such as the free access of journalists not only to the parliament but also to the government meetings, and the media is allowed to use drones. Kun.uz paid attention to the most important points of this draft document and presented its suggestions.
