Along with improvement of the Media Law, it is necessary to accelerate development of new legislation on access to information. This opinion was voiced by participants of a round table discussion held in Dushanbe.

The most typical violation of the rights of journalists is denial of information, although the Tajik legislation guarantees access of citizens to publicly important information, and in some cases, the government bodies and public organizations are obliges to disseminate such information.

Rakhmon Ulmasov, one of the participants of the round table referred to an example from the United States. The US legislation protects the media form the state rather than vice versa.

Among the participants, there were Tajik parliamentarians, representative of the President’s Office, NANSMIT, the National Press Center, the Tajik Media Alliance, and other agencies. They proposed proposals on certain articles of the draft law. The participants consider that the law should guarantee access to information and the right to disseminate it not only to journalists, but to any individual.

The government bodies, public and other organizations, regardless of the form of property, should provide required information to any applicants. Journalists should have the right to visit government institutions and any other organizations; media professionals should have access to any public officials, to make any audio and video records, take pictures, except for specific cases indicated in the Tajik legislation.

Khovar News Agency