DUSHANBE, July 21, Asia-Plus — Distribution of obviously false information defaming a person’s honor, dignity or reputation is inadmissible, however, in my opinion, it is not quite correct to put a sign of equality between categories such as “mass media” and “Internet,” Dmitry Golovanov, a lawyer with Russia’s closed joint-stock company (CJSC) VZGLYAD.RU, said commenting on approval by Tajikistan”s parliament of legislation making it a criminal offence to publish false or offensive information on the internet.
According to him, in contradistinction to mass media, Internet not always has the main goal to distribute information to wide audience, and lawmakers should take it into consideration.
“Such approach to this issue exists in the Russian defamation legislation, under provisions of which, the notion “distribution of information” does not include cases of communicating information directly to person, whose rights and legitimate interests this information concerns,” Golovanov said.
In the meantime, Tajik lawyer Farrukhsho Junaydov told Asia-Plus that in Tajikistan, the notion “distribution of information” includes cases when one person gives information to another one.
According to the Russian expert, uncertainty of the issue on jurisdiction may lead to selective application of criminal legislation, “which is inadmissible.” “In each case, the situation should be considered with regard to that function, which this or that resource fulfilled,” Golovanov said.
“Use of the technology of Internet in itself cannot be considered as aggravating circumstance; it should be considered as a component of objective side of crime,” Golovanov said, noting that the Russian parliament, in its time, had not seconded draft amendments similar to those approved by the Tajik parliament.
As it had been reported earlier, the upper house (Majlisi Milli) of the Tajik parliament on July 19 approved amendments to the country’s penal code that designate the circulation of slander or offensive language via the Internet a criminal offense.
Human rights groups have criticized Tajik authorities for using legislation against slandering the president to restrict political debate. BBC said that the London-based human rights group Article 19 said in a report published on Friday: “In practice, the defamation provisions are often applied not only to factually false attacks on reputation, but when the media criticizes politicians.”
