"This issue demands serious legal modification, as there are gaps in the issues of mass media licensing," he stressed. The deputy minister explained that sometimes it happens so that the license received by one broadcaster is passed to another. "We should prevent this possibility from being used as a means to earn money," said Mr. Nadirov.
He said that the concept of the law On Mass Media, worked out by the Industrial committee, now modified by the culture and mass communications ministry, thoroughly describes such issues as licensing competition disputes, the rights and duties of journalists and mass media owners.
In Mr. Nadirov's words, the notion "covert recording" is likely to disappear from the final version of the law On Mass Media. "The possibility of making covert recording must be available only for operative activity of special services, otherwise we will protect all paparazzi," said Mr. Nadirov.
According to Dmitry Milovantsev, deputy minister of information technology and communications, the Internet should not be ranked among mass media in the law.
"Personal web sites may be compared to a school wall newspaper, for instance. Should wall newspapers be regarded as mass media?" he said.
Mr. Milovantsev stressed that the Internet is not regarded as a means of mass media in any country. "Otherwise web sites would be registered not for $20 as now, but ten times more expensive, as they would need to get licensed for registration," he noted.
In turn, Yuri Golik, the director of the legal department of the culture and mass communications ministry, said that this issue remained open for the ministry.
"Anyway, a new law is to be adopted, as the previous one was adopted in 1991, and new realias have appeared since," he noted.
