Draft Law of the Republic of Belarus on "Information, Informatization and Information Protection". The same applies to provisions that contain fundamental elements of privacy protection. Given the variety of aspects of information policy covered by the law, the main objective of the regulation is uncertain.
4 of the bill provides the principles that are said to guide the implementation of the law. 2, but could make the law's understanding (on behalf of citizens) and application (on behalf of state officials) considerably easier, if it did. 15, which provides for the general content of the right of access, when read in conjunction with Art.
State the concept as well as the scope of rights of the owner of information, especially with regard to the classification of information (also above). In fact, Chapter 4 of this law may be one of its current strongest points. The law stipulates the duty to assist and the duty to ensure the conditions for implementation of this regulation.
Clarify the content of the provisions that define the reasons for denying access to information.
General remarks
The following legal assessment of the proposed Draft Law on Information, Informatization and Information Protection of the Republic of Belarus represents an independent expert opinion on the said legal instrument as available at http://www.e-belarus.org/docs/informationlawdraft. However, it should be noted that the assessment provided, especially its comparative analysis, is without prejudice to legal preferences, which are not known to the author and may not be the same as the recipient's preferences, and the different options available according to national law.
The same applies to the given suggestions and proposals, where some positions depend on the development of the electronic communication services market. In addition, the author is not aware of other legal instruments under the Belarusian legislation that could affect the material provision and consequences of the draft law submitted for legal review, and could, as a result, also provide a different view of the particular analyzed issue. For the same reasons, the submitted assessment cannot interfere with the national division of powers between the various public bodies of the Republic of Belarus.
A logical consequence of the fact is that the regulation of access and provision from the national level becomes unenforceable and thus bypassed. Therefore, the proactive regulation of content is mainly limited to public bodies with a doctrinal agreement as a notion of the individual's right to access information.
Assessment
- The consequences of the law if adopted
- Positive effects of the draft bill
- Negative effects of the draft bill
- Proposals for removal
- Proposals for amendments
In practice, all legislation of EU member states is based on this distinction, and requirements are set accordingly. The main and actually very positive effect of the bill, if it is adopted, is the implementation of a comprehensive approach to the public provision of online content. 5 Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive).
In this regard, however, it should be noted that an electronic request signed with a secure digital signature complying with a qualified certificate has, at least in the EU, the same legal value as a personal signature and thus also has the same legal consequences; according to European Parliament and Council Directive 1999/93/EC of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures. However, it is somewhat doubtful that the registration of information resources containing information on limited supply and the registration of information resources for the security of the state must fall under the same regime as general principles of public information provision (Article 32, paragraphs 4 and 5 ). To this end, it is also difficult to assess the relationship between voluntary registration of private information systems compared to the provision of electronic services upon notification, widely implemented by comparative law, following the European Parliament and Directive 2002/20/EC. Council of 7 March 2002 on the authorization of electronic communication networks and services (the authorization directive)6.
Such a comprehensive and detailed framework can only be observed in comparative law in the directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, which is however only focused on personal data. Somewhat unclear is the idea of the draft bill with the express determination of the individual's right to access personal information (data) of public bodies. The main consideration behind such a regulation is that citizens as part of the public are in fact owners of the information, that information is in fact financed by themselves (through taxes) and that consequently in principle they should also have the right to use it .
Due to the global nature of the Internet, it is very doubtful whether such a solution can be effectively operationalized in practice. Furthermore, proposed legislation can be compared to "mandatory information to be provided" by the provider of an information society service, according to articles 5 and 6 of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market ('Directive on electronic commerce'). Spam« is a huge and global problem of the information society, which, however, is only in the broadest sense related to the provision of public information.
In comparative law, we hereby refer to the EU directives, in particular Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive) . on privacy and electronic communications)7, spam is tackled by legal provisions governing electronic communications, electronic commerce, consumer protection and privacy protection. An example of the definition is provided in Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of information in the public sector: "Public" body means the state, regional or local authorities, public law bodies and associations formed by one or more such authorities or one or more such bodies governed by public law, which have legal personality; and is financed, mainly by the State, or regional or local authorities, or other bodies governed by public law«. Such an approach is mostly based on provisions of articles 12 – 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, which regulate liability in the case of mere channel, cache and hosting services.
Final observations
While not regulated by the current law, relations in the field of information, informatization and protection of information should be regulated by other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus. Powers of the President of the Republic of Belarus in the field of information, informatization and protection of information. Powers of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus in the field of information, informatization and protection of information.
Powers of the State Center for Information Security under the President of the Republic of Belarus in the field of information, computerization and information protection. Powers of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in the field of information, computerization and information protection. Competences of the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus in the field of information, informatization and information protection.
Legal regulations on data constituting a state secret are determined by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus on state secrets. Legal regulations of official (service) information of limited distribution are determined by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. Legal regulations on information that is a business secret are determined by the civil legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
The peculiarities of the legal regulation of information constituting professional secrets are defined by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. Dissemination of information in the Republic of Belarus will take place freely, if all requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus are observed. The legislation of the Republic of Belarus may establish specifications for posting information on the official websites of government agencies (organizations).
The order of formation and operation of the state register of information systems is determined by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. Legislation of the Republic of Belarus may assume mandatory identification of people participating in the exchange of information using information networks. Owner of information shall also exercise other rights in accordance with the current law and other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus.
The owner of the information will also fulfill other responsibilities in accordance with this law and other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus. The information user shall exercise other rights in accordance with this law and other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus. The information user shall fulfill other responsibilities in accordance with this law and other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus.
The order of data protection is regulated by this law and other legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus.