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BBC Monitoring
Russia: Code of rules for journalists to be issued
Source: Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian 1030 gmt 10 Dec 02
[Presenter] Journalists and legislators signed an agreement on cooperation today.
It will be the start of joint work by Russia's parliament, the Press, TV and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Communications Ministry and the Industrial Committee of the mass media on the draft law on the media.
An attempt to change the main [legal] document of mass media was made after the audience of the Nord-Ost musical were taken hostage [in Moscow's theatre in October]. Both houses of the parliament quickly passed restrictive amendments to the law which would complicate journalists' work.
However, the president vetoed the amendments. A new law will be drafted, anyway. A separate code of rules for journalists is to be issued.
[Valeriy Goreglyad, captioned as Federation Council First Deputy speaker] It is very important that since the first day of our work on the draft law we have been cooperating with professionals, with mass media representatives. It makes us confident that the results will be good and we will formulate a law which is in tune with the present time.
[Konstantin Ernst, captioned as chairman of the industry committee and director-general of Pervyy Kanal (Channel One) television] The Industrial Committee and the Press, TV and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Communications Ministry are working on a code of rules regarding media behaviour in public emergencies. Over the last few weeks, we have been working on the convention which is to regulate mass media activities in such circumstances.
[TVS, in Russian 1200 gmt 10 Dec 02 said that the Russian authorities and mass media representatives signed a protocol on cooperation.
[Mikhail Fedotov, captioned as secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia] The decision we made today was in principal. The protocol on cooperation we signed stipulates that all amendments will be worked out, introduced and debated by the parliament at the same time.
[Aleksey Venediktov, captioned as Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief] There will be no amendment to the laws on media and on terrorism. A new draft law on the mass media will be passed instead, where wishes voiced by parliament members and journalists will, hopefully, be taken into account. The Russian Federation Council and the State Duma have agreed to debate, first of all, our draft law on the mass media. It has not been completed yet, but the we work on it every day and, I would say, every night]
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