A draft presidential edict that would tighten control over the Internet is currently considered at the Presidential Administration, Yury Ziser, CEO of the Belarusian largest net portal tut.by, said in an interview with BelaPAN on Thursday.
Mr. Ziser took part in a discussion on the draft that took place at the end of 2009.
Zhanna Litvina, head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, told BelaPAN that authorities had failed to organize a discussion on the draft with "organizations concerned."
"The Advisory Council on Media of which I am a member had the last meeting at the beginning of June 2009," she said. "No invitations were sent to its meetings later and no discussion on the draft Internet edict was held at the structure."
The draft edict would require all websites to get registered through a procedure to be set by the Council of Ministers and approved by the Presidential Administration`s Operational and Analytical Center. The latter body also would collect information about all registered websites.
In addition, the draft edict would require Internet providers and other companies providing services to web users and websites to submit information about their clients to the authorities.
