Mongolia: Draft Broadcasting Law Analysed

After many years of debate and numerous versions, the government of Mongolia has finally placed a draft Broadcasting Law before parliament. The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) welcomes this much needed initiative which provides an opportunity to set clear rules for the licensing of broadcasters, to create an independent regulatory body, to promote diversity in the airwaves and to establish a fair complaints system. While the draft Law achieves some of these goals, an Analysis released today by CLD shows that major revisions are still needed.

“Having worked on broadcast law reform in Mongolia for many years, I have to say that I am disappointed that the draft Broadcasting Law does not do more to address the needs”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “It completely fails to transform the regulator into an independent body and does not mention community broadcasting even once.”

Click here for Analysis of the Draft Broadcasting Law
Click here for the Mongolian Draft Law

In addition to these problems, the Analysis highlights the following needs:

• A robustly independent body should be tasked with running the Development Fund for National Broadcasting, which will be used to promote diverse, quality content.
• Far more detailed rules on the licensing process, which should be required to be fair, transparent and participatory, should be included in the law.
• Instead of providing directly for content rules linked to harsh sanctions, the law should establish a proper complaints system, which includes the development of a code of conduct and rules for processing complaints.
• The whole system of sanctions should be revised and replaced with a set of graduated measures that allow for proportionate responses to breaches.

CLD calls on the government and parliament of Mongolia to take the necessary steps to revise the draft Law substantially to bring it into line with international standards.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3688
www.law-democracy.org
twitter: @law_democracy