Journal articles on the topic 'Mass media – Law and legislation – Zimbabwe'

This issue contains six diverse contributions on topics ranging from prostitution to rent control, unfair dismissals, civil liberties in Zimbabwe, prospecting rights and insolvency issues. The first article is from Sarah Pudifin (pupil advocate at the KwaZulu-Natal Bar) and Shannon Bosch (senior lecturer in law at the University KwaZulu-Natal), who examine countervailing South African public opinion on the subject of prostitution and identify the factors which might influence these attitudes. Sue-Mari Maass of the University of South Africa in the second article gives a comparative analysis of rent control measures imposed in various jurisdictions (South Africa, New York and England) to provide tenure protection for vulnerable tenants. The third article is from Stella Vettori, also of the University of South Africa, who discusses the role of human dignity in the assessment of fair compensation for unfair dismissals. The authors of the fourth article are Jephias Mapuva and Loveness Muyengwa-Mapuva. They discuss key legislation within the areas of media and access to information, individual rights and freedoms, as well as legislation pertaining to the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe. The issue concludes with two case notes. The first one is from Tracy-Lynn Humby of the University of the Witwatersrand. She writes about the conflict between two empowerment firms, Bengwenyama Minerals (the investment vehicle of the Bengwenyama-ye-Maswazi community) and Genorah Resources, which culminated in three judgments, termed the "Bengwenyama trilogy" by the author. Her focus is on the right of a community to prospect or mine and the protection thereof during mining activities. The second note, written by Lienne Steyn of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, considers case law which deals with the interface between the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 and the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936. The question in all three cases she discusses was whether or not a debtor's application for debt review constitutes an act of insolvency which can be relied upon by a debtor in an application for the compulsory

Zimbabwe has a population of almost ten million people of which approximately 80 per cent, are poor and live in the rural areas. The majority of the rural population lack formal education and are ignorant of their rights. They have no access to legal services as most of the country's lawyers are based in the urban areas. Even if legal practitioners were accessible to them, they would not be able to pay for their services. Thus, they are liable to exploitation.Since independence, the changes in Zimbabwe law have been rapid, farreaching and progressive. In the absence of any co-ordinated mass education campaign on their meaning and implications, or consultation with those to be affected before enactment, there has been a great deal of adverse reaction to new legislation, especially where it has safeguarded or equalised the rights of women. For the community, the effect has been chaos. Traditional structures, known and well-understood means of communication, and culturally entrenched roles have been transformed and replaced by a new order.The Legal Resources Foundation (LRF), an autonomous charitable and educational Trust, was established to meet the need to improve the accessibility of legal and information services to all sections of the population. It was formed following a regional workshop on legal aid which was held at the University of Zimbabwe in February 1984 and against the background of there being just 400 lawyers in Zimbabwe at the time, all of whom were urban based.

In light of the importance of culture for the autonomy, sense of identity, and self-respect of individuals, cultural minorities have a right that their cultures flourish. Since cultural minorities are frequently in a disadvantaged position in the cultural market-place, a commitment to equality implies that the state ought to take steps to assist these minorities in preserving their cultures. This Article examines the ways the mass media can assist cultural minorities in preserving their cultures. For instance, when the media present contents that relate to the cultures of minorities, individual members of the minority group are exposed to their culture; media designated for cultural groups facilitate dialogue between group members, thus enabling the cultural group to determine which parts of its culture to retain and which parts to change. With that said, contemporary media frequently provide insufficient cultural contents due to the influence of commercial operational logic. This Article examines why the motivation for profit leads to under-production of cultural materials for minorities and to insufficient inclusion of cultural minorities in the public discourse. It is argued that the inequality caused by the media—which provide minorities with too little of the cultural contents so pertinent to the realization of their right to culture—merits corrective intervention. The Article examines possible forms of State intervention with the media on behalf of cultural minorities, taking into consideration that such intervention is a sensitive issue, since it has ramifications concerning the scope of the freedom of the press. Accordingly, it is argued that the State ought to be permitted to create legislation which intervenes, mainly by means of subsidies and structural regulation, to improve the manner in which the media fulfill their roles in a multicultural democracy. In contrast, there should be sparse use of conditionality in the issue of licenses for media operators.

Introduction. The role of social media is objectively increasing in modern digital information space. They are much involved in shaping public opinion while democracy and civil society are being built and developed. Social media also contribute to the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution. In the context of globalization, the development of state legal regulation often turns to the implementation of the rules which have already been tested in other countries. The fast development of relations in the field of social media and piecemeal legal regulation of this field in Russia make the foreign experience highly demanded. Theoretical analysis. Social media is one of the key actors in shaping public opinion. However, the current legislation of the Russian Federation very superficially regulates the legal status of this media institution. In turn, the Federal Republic of Germany has more experience in the legal regulation of social media. Based on a certain proximity of the state and legal mechanisms of Russia and Germany, as well as the high level of development of democratic institutions of the latter, the authors analyzed the status of social media in the constitutional and legal space of these countries in order to study the possibility of adapting the German experience to improve Russian legislation. Empirical analysis. The high degree of influence of social media on public opinion is due to a number of specific characteristics of their creation and functioning: the spontaneous nature of content creation, the high speed of information dissemination, the minimum level of external influence, the easily perceived nature of information. Taken together, these characteristics of the institution significantly complicate the implementation of legal regulation in relation to them, effective and efficient in practice, which also determines the conduct of the study. Results. We have studied common and individual features of the legal regulation of social media in the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on our conclusions, we are coming up with several proposals for the improvement of the Russian legislation on social media. Russia has significant weaknesses and conflicts of laws in the sphere of media production and information dissemination. Russian legislation in no way covers the social media not registered as mass media in the manner prescribed by law. In our opinion, the German legislation on social media also has certain deficiencies. However, some rules may be adapted to Russian legislation. Based on our research, we propose to draft a federal law on social media, which would partially reflect German experience.

The review is a response to the textbook Legal Regulation of Mass Media for undergraduate students of journalism faculties. Professor I. Pankeev examines the legislation on the media, the rights and duties of journalists, the protection of intellectual property rights to the content journalists create, state regulation in the media and much more. The textbook is relevant as it takes into account the trends of legal regulation of the media in 2017–2018, it is also fundamental as it combines information from different areas of law, which is extremely rare, and the textbook is universal: for many reasons, it will be practically useful not only for university students, but also for the media editorial staff, specialists in the field of media communication and scientists studying the state regulation of the media.

Canada has undergone intensive public debate concerning firearms over the past two decades, much of which has concerned the effectiveness of gun control legislation. Since about 2005 public discourse has focused increasingly on an upsurge in gun-crime perpetrated by street-level criminals. The article examines the projection of these concerns within the Canadian mass media and through official statistics. It shows that gun control legislation appears to have had a positive effect on gun-related crime in Canada, but that a residuum of gun-crime has remained. Evidence suggests that a process of pistolization is ongoing in some places, but that it is not a dominant strain. The article also looks at some examples of grassroots resistance to pistolization in Canada in some communities that are worst affected by street-level gun crime.

The allegation of blasphemy in our society faces violent reactions by the masses and it is generally due to a lack of knowledge about legislation concerning blasphemy in the country. In Pakistan since the introduction of blasphemy law in the country from 1986 to 2010, over 1274 individuals were charged with blasphemy allegation and alarmingly over 51 were killed either before the completion of their trial or pronouncement of conviction. This study explores the role of media in blasphemy cases in Pakistan. Researcher has used the triangulation method. The researcher analyzes the content of two mainstream newspapers using the content analysis technique. For this purpose, 100 faculty members and students of mass media from different universities of Lahore were approached. Result reveals that value relation is significant for creating awareness in people who are exposed to media for more time. Result shows that more than 50% of respondents think that media fails to perform its duty as a watchdog of society. The relation between exposure to media and level of educating people on legislation is also significant.

The article is dedicated to necessary defense as a circumstance preventing a crime in the criminal law of the Russian Federation. Goal: to identify advantages and disadvantages of regulating necessary defense as a circumstance preventing a criminal action as envisaged by Article 37 of the Criminal Code of Russia providing liability for crimes committed through excessive self-defense. Methods: a study of respective norms using a systemic method, general scientific methods (structural-functional analysis, comparison, logical method, content analysis of court practice and mass media). Primary results: the research helped to identify advantages and disadvantages of the legal framework of necessary defense as well as significant qualification mistakes of judicial and investigative practice. Conclusions and novelty of the research: insufficient efficiency of the existing approach to problems of qualifying necessary defense and ways are proposed to solve these problems, namely, by correcting the Decree of the Russian Federation Plenum of Supreme Court dated September 27, 2012, No. 19 On Judicial Use of Legislation on Necessary Defense and Causing Harm in Arrest of Perpetrators. Due to ambiguousness and inconsistent practice of using criminal law norms concerning necessary defense, it is proposed to use, in the further reconstruction of respective norms of Article 37 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a list-based approach to legislative wording of these norms that allow the defender to inflict any harm to the offender. An easily understandable wording is created, which permits lawfully causing harm to social relations protected by criminal law.

The subject of this research is the separate provisions of legislation on elections, as well as the law enforcement practice in light of their correspondence with legislation on countering corruption – the new vector of research in electoral law. The object of this research is the social relations in the area of elections. The author examines the instance of consolidating the powers of the territorial electoral commission and electoral commission of a municipal formation, as well as the practice of information support of elections by mass media, established by the candidates and political parties. Special attention is paid to the corruption risks. Methodology is based on the sociological approach to corruption reflected in the works of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly the practice of delegation of powers. The following conclusions were made: 1) since electoral commissions are not under supervision of the prosecutor’s office, there is a gap in delegation of the functions of control over the decisions, actions or inactions of electoral commissions; 2) delegation of the function of information support of elections by mass media established by the political parties and candidates contains corruption risks. The author’s special contribution consists in recommendations aimed at overcoming political inequality in electoral process with reference to the indicated problems. The novelty consists in application of sociological approach towards examining the practice of holding elections.

The language policy issues in Zimbabwe are embedded in three documents which are the Education Act of 1987, the Nziramasanga Commission, and the current constitution which was passed into law in 2013. The paper examines the negatives and positives of these policies in education and how they facilitate the inclusion and exclusion of Sotho. The vague policies which are evasive on how indigenous languages should be treated when it comes to their use as media of instruction are problematised. Data used in this paper was supplemented with information that came from interviews with eight teachers from schools in Gwanda. It is argued in this paper that the policies and pieces of legislation are not devoted to the equal advancement of indigenous languages. It is concluded that the functionality of Sotho in the education sector in Zimbabwe is mainly hindered by the government policies that do not recognise the co-existence of languages but rather create a linguistic war zone where they have to fight to dislodge one another. The paper advocates for the recognition of harmonious co-existence of languages in education where all the languages found in a geographical space are not restricted but are made to function equally and simultaneously. Received: 12 September 2020 / Accepted: 17 December 2020 / Published: 5 March 2021

The central proposition of this paper is that it is no longer valid to assert that the only and proper function of the trade is to denote the source of the product to which it is affixed. Trade marks are being employed in many diverse ways. In the age of mass media, trade marks may provide the key to marketing successfully. The dilution doctrine has developed in recognition of the potential value of a trade mark to tis owner. Anti-dilution provisions, as far as they go, do provide a useful tool in protecting the trade mark itself. However, as technology continues to advance, so does the trade mark function. The so-called domain name disputes, primarily in the United States are evidence of this claim. Not only have the decisions in these cases furthered the development of the trade mark legislation, they have demonstrated the inadequacies of the current trade mark legislation and the desperate need for reform. These inadequacies are examined and reform is proposed. Finally, the paper assesses the desirability of allowing the further expansion of the trade mark. It is submitted that the proper expansion of the trade mark should not be resisted.

The diversity of media means not only a variety of content and multiplicity of media owners, but also a variety of types of media. Together with the traditional models of public service and private commercial broadcasting, the community media emerged as the “third level” of media development, which contributed to strengthening the freedom of speech. This article examines the organizational and legal aspects of formation of local public audiovisual media in Ukraine, their compliance with the standards and principles of media legislation of European countries, and provides the examples of development of local public broadcasting in the world practice. In addition, the international standards for community broadcasting, on which legislative and regulatory bodies rely, are analyzed. The objective of the study is to analyze, to systematize and to generalize the basic legislative norms for formation of audiovisual media communities in Ukraine as a separate media institution along with public, commercial broadcasting and broadcasting abroad. The bibliographic method was used to study and to analyze the legislative documents. With the help of the systemic method, the community broadcasting as an integral system mass media was considered. The comparative method was used to compare the legislative regulation of activities of media communities, recommended by the Council of Europe and represented in the legislation of Ukraine. The article outlines the main provisions of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Media” No. 2693-d. Comparing the Ukrainian legislative initiatives with the European experience, the suggestions and proposals for improving the financing system and the program policy of community broadcasting in Ukraine are presented.

The relevance of the topic under study is due to the wide penetration of new technologies in all spheres of public relations. Due to its special situation, the electoral process is the most susceptible not only to the introduction of modern technologies, but to a greater use of the information and communication network "Internet" as well. Adaption of the electoral legislation to the requirements of the time appears to be important. The present study is aimed at a comprehensive analysis of the Russian legislation regulating the issues of election campaigning in the information and communication network "Internet". The article analyzes Federal Law № 43-FZ dated March 9, 2021 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation", Federal Law №67-FZ dated June 12, 2002 "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of the Russian Federation Citizens", Federal Law № 149-FZ dated July 27, 2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", Federal Law № 20-FZ dated February 22, 2014 "On Elections of Deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation". Amendments to the legislation regarding regulation of election campaigning in the Internet are considered as a timely and adequate response to the growth of Internet use for campaigning purposes. Election commissions have additional rights to prevent dissemination of campaign materials and information in the Internet that do not meet the requirements of the electoral legislation. Concerning these appeals, election commissions can contact the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. Attention is drawn to possible difficulties in new legislation enforcement, such as additional resources, professional skills in tracking, identifying and documenting violations.

The article defines the role and place of departmental mass media in the system of information support of internal troops the main power component of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in 1992–2016 in ensuring law and order and internal security of the state. Special attention is paid to the activity of periodical press of internal troops to inform soldiers who took part in counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasian region of Russia. The peculiarities of the activities of the departmental mass media of the Interior Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs are studied by defining the main stages of their development, the most important thematic areas, revealing, in addition to information and educational functions of these publications, the specifics of military journalists’ work to collect material in hot spots. As a result of the study, data were obtained indicating that the departmental print media played an important role in the system of information support for the internal troops and contributed to the strengthening of the moral and psychological condition of military personnel and, as a result, to the successful performance of tasks of the internal troops to combat gangs in the North Caucasus. The results given in the article are based on the pieces of work of domestic researchers, regulatory legal acts of Russian legislation, as well as publications of departmental mass media, the author’s own practical experience as a correspondent of departmental mass media of the internal troops.

ABSTRACTThe proliferation of infotainment shows on television media for current decades is considered quite disturbing for broadcasting stakeholders in this country. The mass media through its four functions should be able to perform these functions in sequence and the four should run proporsonally, either the functions of educating, providing information, entertaining and influencing. But along with the disowning of conscience by media owners who are very oriented to the political economic of the liberal media, the main purpose of broadcasting is merely pursuing for ratings to be able to reap a lot of advertisements, with the reason people as the owner of the sovereign broadcasting like it. The orientation of media owners through infotainment shows that sold well consumed by society, on one hand, potentially damage the morality of the society into an opportunistic, apathy and hedonist nation. The situation of upheaval domestic political is also considered to foster infotainment shows in the midst of people's worries about the increasingly uncertain political situation, especially the corruption news that has filled the labyrinth of society, more saturated, so that people seek entertainment on television through infotainment shows.The lack of favor towards the conscience and the morality of society, thereby crashing into the corridor of mass media function, encourages media owners to tend to display something of added value in society, by denying the educational function, providing useful information and influencing the society with more cosmopolitan thinking. This is the serious problem faced by this nation, and has not obtained law enforcement as regulated in legislation. In this case, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission which has repeatedly reprimanded and gave strong warnings against television stations that broadcast infotainment shows inappropriately, merely to rebuke and commemorate, without being able to bring it into the realm of justice. The inherent strength of capital accompanied by the social political power of the media owners, have made all violations and crimes in the mass media unfolded without ever being touched by the law. Keywords: People behavior, media ethics and infotainment shows on television

Corruption is an extraordinary crime that is contagious in every state apparatus, both in the central government and regional governments. The research method in this paper is a normative method that collects library data, namely legislation, law books, judges' decisions, mass media and scientific journals related to the issues discussed in this thesis. Law enforcement of corruption in Indonesia as outlined in the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 1999 concerning Corruption Eradication is a representation of 3 elements of law enforcement, namely the lawmaking element (making this law), the element of law enforcement officers namely this law also regulates law enforcement officers for example with the Corruption Eradication Commission and the elements of the community environment by regulating public participation in eradicating corruption in Indonesia. Judge's consideration in dropping the verdict Number: 116 / Pid.Sus-TPK / 2014 / PN.Mdn is to consider mitigating and aggravating matters, taking into account the defendant's ability to take responsibility, considering the absence of forgiving and justifying reasons.

This study aims to determine the implementation of legal protection for consumers due to misleading print media advertising against misleading advertisements in print media viewed from Law No. 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection because, in fact there are still consumers who do not know how the legal protection is due to such misleading advertising. The method used in the writing of this research is the method of library research that collects data by doing library material or secondary data that includes legislation, books, mass media, and other reading related to the writing of this research and field research methods , which is a research process by collecting data related to obtained directly from the field. In this study the collection of data in the form of interviews obtained at the place of pre-determined interviews. From the results of research obtain the form of legal protection that can be done by consumers due to misleading print media advertising is in the form of the Institution Consumer Protection Society (LPKSM) which has the task of one is to assist consumers in fighting for rights, which is based on the The Consumer Protection of Law in protecting consumers other than those officially established by the government, in Chapter IX Article 44 and the accountability of the respective business actors are those responsible for providing compensation for damage, pollution and / or consumer loss resulting from the consumption of goods and / or services produced or traded under Article 7, Article 19 paragraph (1) and Article 20 UUPK (The Consumer Protection of Law).

Criminal policy can be interpreted in the narrow sense that criminal politics is described as a whole principle and method, which is the basis of the reaction to violations of laws in the form of criminal. And in a broad sense this is the overall function of law enforcement officials, including the workings of the court and the police. While in the broadest sense it constitutes the whole policy, which is carried out through legislation and official bodies that aim to uphold the central norms of society. Factors Underlying the Occurrence of Corruption Crime: a) Lack of salary for Civil Servants compared to needs that are increasingly increasing. b) Background of Indonesian culture or culture which is the source or cause of widespread corruption. c) Poor management and less effective and efficient controls that will provide opportunities for people to corruption. d) Modernization breeds corruption. Briefly the causes of corruption include 5 (five) aspects, namely: a) Individual Aspects of Actors, b) Aspects of Organizations / institutions, c) Aspects of society, d) Aspects of law enforcement and legislation, and e) Political Aspects. Efforts to prevent corruption through legal policies with means of reasoning and non-reasoning. Penal facilities include, a) Criminal Law Book (wetboek van Strafrecht) January 1, 1918; b) WvS in the 1915 Staatblaad Number 752 dated 15 October 1915; c) Law number 74 of 1957 in conjunction with Law Number 79 of 1957, d) Provisional Constitution of 1950, e) Government Regulation in lieu of law Number 24 of 1960 concerning Investigation, Prosecution and Corruption Criminal Investigation, f) Law number 1 of 1960, g) Law Number 24 Prp of 1960 concerning Investigation, Prosecution and Corruption Criminal Investigation, h) Law Number 3 of 1971 concerning Eradication of Corruption Crime; i) MPR XI / MPR / 1998 Tap concerning the implementation of a clean and free country of corruption, collusion and nepotism; j) Law number 28 of 1999 concerning State settlements which are clean and free of KKN which includes provisions on criminalization of collusion and nepotism offenses, k) Law number 31 of 1999 concerning the eradication of criminal acts of corruption, l) Law number 20 of 2001 concerning amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes that took effect from 21 November 2001, m) Law Number 30 of 2002 concerning the Corruption Eradication Commission. Efforts to deal with non-criminal crimes can be in the form of: a) Non-criminal prevention (Prevention without punishment), b) Influencing the public's view of crime and punishment through mass media (influencing views of society on crime and punishment mass media).Keywords: corruption, reason, nonpenal

Process of formation of the civil sector has significantly accelerated in recent years. It became the instrument of social policy, school of political culture and a form of civil participation. In the activity, they are guided by modern concepts of civil society, which has been developed in a subsoil of the liberal culture. Directly or indirectly, their ideological platforms include values of the free personality, the principles of the constitutional state and private property, security of all subjects from any decisions, independence of mass media, compliance of the domestic legislation to the universally recognized norms and the principles of international law. The paper is also devoted to studying the questions of formation of public associations in the Republic of Tatarstan.

While the mission of public health is to fulfill society’s interest in ensuring a healthy society as “public health is what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy,” the mission of public health law is to assist in the creation of those conditions. However, at times of disaster, threats or risks caused by dead bodies often cause dramatic media coverage and public panic, which incite the passage of emergency public health laws. The unfortunate result of such emergency public health laws mandating immediate dead body disposal, often through mass burial, is that proper identification of the deceased is severely hampered, and families are frequently precluded from experiencing the grieving process and are unable to bring closure to such a traumatic event. Are such emergency public health laws misinformed? Are the threats of dead bodies of disasters a threat to the public’s health? Are the perceived public health threats of dead bodies merely a myth—or is their cause for justified concern? Such a rush to burial not only may add to the psychological distress of survivors but it also forbids them the opportunity of seeing their loved ones being treated with dignity and respect. Additional consequence of “emergency” mass burial legislation without proper identification include legal problems associated with inheritance, life insurance, remarriage of spouses, parenting of surviving children, and even the threat of diplomatic tensions between nation states resulting from burial of foreign tourists.Disaster medicine specialists are often called upon to comment to the media, advise governmental agencies, and console families, as to the disposition of dead bodies and to the existence of any public health threats caused by the accumulation of human cadavers. Because disaster medicine specialists play a vital role in preserving the public’s health, and because public fears of spread of infectious disease often escalate paralleling the accumulation of dead bodies, disaster medicine specialists must be properly informed of the epidemiologic risks and public health issues that dead bodies of disasters may pose. The purpose of this article is to provide a foundation for disaster medicine specialists in properly advising governments, the public, media, and families regarding the risks and fears concerning the health hazards of human cadavers resulting from disasters.

The authors study the issues of preventing the damage to the railway telecommunications infrastructure by analyzing the current criminal procedure legislation, criminal legislation and criminalistics views on the methods and means of counteracting crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They present the algorithm of actions of the law enforcement employees and the specialists servicing the railway facilities when such offences take place. The authors analyze the procedural investigative activities regarding the employees of the organizations that service the railway infrastructure. The investigation of crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation requires expert knowledge in the sphere of servicing railway transport. The authors specifically examine some evidence acquired during the preliminary investigation and the methodology of some investigative actions (interrogation of witnesses, representatives of the aggrieved party, inspection of the crime scene). They analyze the procedure of evaluating the damage inflicted on sophisticated telecommunication facilities. They also single out a number of special characteristics of the investigative methodology for crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation when specialists in servicing complex telecommunications facilities are called to give testimony. It is noted that countries bordering on the Russian Federation and members of the Customs Union are gradually harmonizing their criminal and criminal procedure legislation with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The paper states that today the Russian Federation has sufficient legislative base to form a system of preventing crimes against railway telecommunications infrastructure. In conclusion the authors present a number of measures to counteract crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, offer their brief description and the recommendations for using them. They stress the necessity of cooperation between the owners of the railway facilities, the law enforcement bodies and the mass media.

Introduction.The article analyzes the evolution of priority directions and main methods of legal regulation of the information sphere in modern Russia. The main focus is on the specifcs of the regulation of the state information policy in Russia in the new political reality that emerged after 2014. The article explores the basic criteria for the improvement of information legislation with the aim of increasing the effciency of forms and methods of implementation of the communication policy as a management function of the modern state.Materials and methods.Comparative analysis of the legal regulation of the information sphere as one of the main tools of state power in relation to media policy as a management function of the modern state allows conducting a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the modern practice of implementation of state information policy by public authorities and management of the Russian Federation. The article also uses general scientifc and special methods of cognition of legal phenomena and processes in the sphere of Russian information legislation: the method of systemic structural analysis, comparative-legal and formal-logical methods.Results.The formation and improvement of the legal framework for the development of the information society acts as a priority direction of the state information policy. To date, Russia has established and successfully operates an integrated system of national legislation in the feld of information as a separate independent branch of Russian law. The basis of information policy, as well as policy in General, constitute a set of rules of law and mechanisms for their implementation.Discussion and Conclusion.Information legislation is one of the main conditions for the development and implementation of the state information policy. It creates a legal basis for the regulation of the market of information products and services, as well as the development of the entire complex of mass communication, information and communication. The practical implementation of the state information policy in all its functional and temporary aspects provides for the constant development of information legislation as a system of interrelated legal norms based on the constitutional principles of the Federal structure of the Russian state, the separation of powers, the delimitation of the subjects of jurisdiction and authority and the construction of a unifed system of Russian legislation.

The authors use international experience to review main trends in improving terrorism-related criminal liability in Russia, analyze key international legal acts as well as Russian laws that form the basis for counteracting terrorism. They state that the federal law «On Counteracting Terrorism» eliminated a number of legal problems and contradictions in the counter-terrorism legislation and practice of counter-terrorism work. The authors pay attention to specific modern features of terrorist acts, including the use of the Internet technologies to recruit potential criminals. They study problems in international counter-terrorism cooperation. The authors note that the legal basis for counteracting terrorism at the municipal level is far behind the regional and federal levels and suggest how legislation for terrorism-related crimes and their subject composition could be improved. They show that it is necessary to hold close relatives of terrorists responsible for crimes against public safety if their knowledge about the crime or aid to criminals has been proven. It is noted that it is necessary to strengthen the system of preventive measures aimed at determining the causes and conditions contributing to terrorism. The role of special services in preventing terrorist attacks should decline while the impact of educational institutions, public organizations, the church and mass media should increase. Besides, the authors note that victimological influence is very promising for improving the effectiveness of terrorism counteraction and suggest making a number of amendments in the current Russian criminal legislation.

The subject. The article reveals an understanding of the freedom of speech in French law The purpose of the article is to identify the contents of freedom of speech in the French law and to determine the boundaries of its implementation in the Internet as well as to confirm or refute the hypothesis that both the freedom of speech and the definition of the boundaries of that freedom meets the purposes of protection of human rights. The description of methodology. General scientific methods ‐ analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison ‐ were used. The authors also use the formal legal interpretation of French judicial decisions and content‐analysis of press.The main results and scope of their application. Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of French society, but it has become necessary to revise a number of rules governing freedom of speech and imposing restrictions due to widespread using of Internet in people’s life. So exceptions from freedom of speech are embedded in national legislation, despite the fact that the basis for the legal regulation of freedom of the media in a democratic society is to ensure non‐interference of the state in the content of production and dissemination of information. In some countries exceptions to freedom of speech are expressed primarily in the form of rules aimed at preventing abuses of freedom of the mass media and serving as a basis for sanctions against media editorial boards. The authors also cite actual examples of the realization of the freedom of speech in France, and draw conclusions about the possibilities for the development of this right. The proposed analysis may be used as a basis for improvement national legislation concerning limitations of freedom of speech.Conclusions. Freedom of speech and freedom of the media are not absolute in France. In order to fulfil its function of protecting and guaranteeing rights and freedoms, the state must pay equal attention both to ensuring freedom of speech (including the independence of the press, access to information) and to defining the limits of this freedom in order to prevent its unlawful abuse. Any freedom turns into chaos without proper boundaries.

The recent enactment of the Young Offenders Act has ended a long period of the rule of the “parens patriae”, philosophy whereby the juvenile court's task was not to administer just punishment for the offence but to diagnose and treat the underlying problems. The new legislation, which follows the “justice model”, attempts to broaden legal rights of accused juveniles while simultaneously making juvenile law more punitive and more focused on specific criminal offences. The present article looks at the way the Canadian mass media reported on this major historical shift in the juvenile justice philosophy. The overt and hidden messages are analysed and the sources of the prevailing definitions explored. It has been found that the majority of informants represented powerful interest groups and organizations. Moreover, the investigated press reports created an image of fundamental consensus, and the new legislation was presented as being beneficial to the society as a whole. The inherent contradictions in the philosophy underlying the new Act were overlooked in favour of an image of a perfect balance whereby ambivalences of the new approach became transformed into virtues. The article tests a number of hypotheses and offers theoretical interpretations of the findings. The applicability of the consensual functionalist, critical functionalist and Marxist orientations is assessed.

Objective: This study aims to identify the challenges for public participation in health legislation in Iran. Materials & Methods: This is an exploratory and qualitative study. The study data were collected by using semi-structured interviews. The participants were experts in the field of health law with at least ten years of work experience. They had both experience and enough knowledge about the country’s health system. All interviews were transcribed verbatim after recording and then analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: We identified five main categories (themes) and 26 subcategories related to challenges. The main themes included legal barriers, infrastructure barriers, sociocultural barriers, people’s barriers, and legislators’ barriers. The legal barriers had three subcategories of parliament’s structure, legal requirements for participation, and facilitating laws. The infrastructure barriers had seven subcategories of the existence of mass media and communication networks, informing, ability to access to/meet the legislators, ability to categorize opinions, the possibility of electronic participation, financial resources, and structural facilities. The sociocultural barriers had three subcategories of people’s desire to participate, belief in teamwork, and social capital. Barriers related to people included eight subcategories of access to information, access to legislators, getting answers or feedback from legislators, feeling safe after participation, people’s awareness of their rights, education, ability to exchange views, and the existence of a highly-skilled expert team. Barriers related to legislators had nine subcategories of the desire to use others’ opinions, capacity to accept different opinions, party-related factors, regional factors, administrative health, education, opportunity, priorities, and motivational factors. Conclusion: Iranian citizens have several challenges to participate in health legislation. Regarding legal challenges, it is necessary to determine the participation right of citizens in the legal system. Besides, members of parliament should be educated to use the capacity of public participation. On the other hand, people should speak freely with the legislators and gain health knowledge as well.

VII Nevsky International Ecological Congress "Environmental Safety Strategies: Implementation Tools" took place on May 28–29th 2015 in St. Petersburg. The congress has been heldsince 2008. The main goal of this congress is to assist in the development of international system of environmental safety through international collaboration, to improve international environmental law, and to coordinate the legislation of members of the Common wealth of Independent States that regulates public relations in interaction between society and nature. In this article, we present basic results of discussion of the problems of Russian environmental safetyin international context (including the project of Strategy of ecological security of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025). Members of legislative and executive branches of the government, representatives of international organizations, business communities, educational and research establishments, mass media from 32 countries and 62 regions of Russia discussed issues during the plenary session and round tables.

Corruption is an urgent issue that must be overcome, in order to achieve healthy economic growth. Various notes on corruption that are always preached by the mass media both print and electronic, illustrated the increase and development of corruption models. Anti-corruption rhetoric is not enough to resolve / dismiss this disgraceful practice. Legislation that is part of the legal politics made by the government, becomes meaning less, if not accompanied by seriousness to manifestation of existing legislation. Legal politics is not enough, if there is no recovery of the executor or the perpetrators of the law. This study aims to find out how the political economic implications of corruption in Indonesia, and what strategies can be done to minimize corruption practices and how multiplier effect for the efficiency and effectiveness of economic development in Indonesia. This research uses qualitative method with descriptive approach. In this case researchers describe the results of research. Therefore, researchers conducted observations and interviews then analyzed it with data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusions. The results can be concluded that the eradication of corruption as if only a political commodity, powerful material rhetoric attract sympathy. Therefore, civil society's intelligence is needed to monitor and make political decisions to prevent the corruption of corruption in Indonesia. It is not easy to eliminate corruption but should be sought to minimize corruption.

The article analyzes the current state of the mass media of the Republic of Bulgaria and the changes that have taken place in this area during the period of preparation and membership of the state in the European Union. The author emphasizes that in the process of European integration, the media played a key role, reflecting all social processes, the impact of European integration on the social and political life of the country in particular. The democratization of the society has contributed to a major transformation of the media system and methods of its management. The state was able to synchronize its media legislation with European norms and standards, which has created a positive dynamics of development in the media market, especially in the segment of TV and radio broadcasting. The process of Bulgaria’s preparation and accession to the EU has had a positive impact on the country’s media policy and media law. Currently, the main priority of Bulgaria’s foreign policy is the process of European integration and the media play a direct role in it. Joining the EU has allowed Bulgaria to achieve greater internal stability; use opportunities for the development of democratic institutions, including the media system. The Republic of Bulgaria has not yet reached the standards of the European information policy in the field of ethnic issues, but after joining the EU there are tangible positive changes in the improvement of this sphere. Commercial media have appeared in Bulgaria, which dissociated themselves from the state, changed their profile, looking for their audience. Due to the concentration of media ownership and increased investment in the media market of Bulgaria, the competition between commercial media has grown and there is now a tendency to commercialize media content. This has led to the spreading of a hybrid model of the press and its tautological audiovisual production. “Classical” censorship gave way to property censorship, which significantly limited the variety of media content and formats. A significant drawback at the level of the media system is the weak regulatory support for the transition to digital distribution of information.

Introduction. The provisions of national law indicate that state policy in the field of prevention and counteraction to domestic violence is one of the priorities of the state legal policy of Ukraine. The purpose of the paper is as follows: to review on the basis on legislation provisions the implementation of state policies in the field of preventing and combating domestic violence, by improving the forms of protection and assistance for victims of domestic violence. Results. In Ukraine domestic violence is not a purely family affair, since the state has established an effective mechanism for combating and preventing domestic violence; is defined a list of actors authorized to take appropriate measures. Subjects of administrative and legal response to domestic violence are the empowered state authorities, executive and local self-government bodies and their structural subdivisions, citizens' associations, enterprises, institutions and organizations, as well as individuals - citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, and stateless. It can be stated that currently in Ukraine there is a rather broad system of providing protection and assistance to domestic violence victims, which is aimed at securing the rights and legitimate victims’ interests of such violence, providing them with effective assistance and protection, preventing recurrence of domestic violence in the future. Domestic violence is counteracted and prevented through a wide range of state-provided means. Criminal, administrative and civil law responsibility may be imposed for the commission of domestic violence, furthermore the legislation provides for basic and specific measures to counter domestic violence. Conclusions. To overcome the problem of domestic violence, it is necessary to introduce an effective system of avoidence and prevention of this type of violence, this system should be based on the following elements: 1) prevention; 2) providing protection and assistance to victims; 3) bringing the perpetrators to justice. However, in our opinion, the solution to the preventing and combating domestic violence problem is possible only by joining forces of public and state structures, mass media, educational and medical institutions, national communities, etc.

The aim set by the authors of the present article is to consider the psychological, pedagogical, legal and economic contexts of the negative impact of advertising in the media (mass media) on the creative potential of population. The novelty of the undertaken research lies in an attempt to comprehensively assess the cause-and-effect relationships of one of the sides of the process of developing students’ fragmented thinking, which reduces stability of the educational system and, consequently, the stability of the entire society. Materials and methods include a review of analytical assessments presented in the Scopus, Web of Science, CyberLeninka, RSCI and others databases, as well as application of the methodology of analysis, synthesis, generalization of the results of qualitative author’s and secondary research. As a result of the study, systemic violations of the legislation on the protection of children from information harmful to their mental health were revealed. The economic effect of the systematic appeal of the media to advertising contexts was shown, which arises contrary to the laws of the economy, when the service to the consumer (viewer, reader, user of IT technologies) is not requested, but forcibly provided, while the cancellation of it is realizable only with additional payment for ad blocking by third parties. The article also reveals the negative effect manifested in the political stability of society, resulting from the long-term destructive influence of advertising on the viewer’s thinking through the formation of fragmentary thinking of citizens, minimizing the level of their readiness to establish cause-and-effect relationships in assessing individual activity and events in society. In conclusion proposals are given for eliminating violations of the law and increasing the stability of society on the basis of increasing the stability of the education system to the negative impact of external education.

The article deals with the basic legal acts defining the procedural aspects of the interaction of local self-government bodies with non-governmental organizations. Particular attention is paid to the coverage of international acts ratified by Ukraine and regulates the issues of such cooperation. The article highlights the dependence of the development of local self-government on the civil and political activity of the population. A detailed study of problems in the relationship of local self-government with citizens, associations of citizens, mass media and other civil society institutions has been formulated, proposals have been formulated to improve the solution of identified problems. As a result of the research, the author concluded that the main problem on the way of democratization of the national legislation of Ukraine is the inactive and ineffective participation of the public in the formation and implementation of state policy. The European Convention on Human Rights determines that the state must ensure the right of citizens to participate in the management of public affairs in order to establish a democratic and legal society, however, there are no mechanisms established by law for such participation. Investigation of the existing regulatory framework in Ukraine to ensure basic legal guarantees of citizens’ participation in the development and implementation of management decisions by local self-government bodies proves that not only these guarantees are not detailed, but also none of the existing normative acts establish clear procedures for ensuring the rights of citizens from the bodies of local self-government information regarding the issues discussed and regulated by these bodies, adopted regulatory acts, projects and mechanisms for the adoption of achymyh decisions for society. The article contains a number of concrete proposals for solving the problems of forming the basis of cooperation between local self-government bodies, the legal regulation of control and supervision activities in the field of local self-government, conflict resolution between local self-government bodies and civil society organizations, improvement of legal regulation of liability for non-compliance with legislation on civil cooperation society with local self-government bodies.

We analyze the legislation and practice of public control implementation of the work of institutions and authorities that conduct sentences. We consider the basic principles and directions of the Public Monitoring Commissions (PMC) activities, we list the problem aspects of the administrations interaction of corrections facilities (CF), mass media and public members. In addition, we study the conceptual foundations of the penal system (PS), measures of legal, organizational, informational, social and economic nature aimed at transparency and improving the conditions of serving a sentence. We ascertain that in practice there are cases in which misunderstanding and ignorance of the criminal, criminal procedural and correctional law legis-lation by members of the PMC, their inability to give an objective legal as-sessment of the behavior and actions of a particular subject (remand prisoner, convicted) and officials of administrations of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS of Russia) often creates prerequisites for destabilizing the work of institutions of forced detention (FD) and violating the order of serving sentences. In addition, we note that there are other unresolved tasks with the procedure for protecting the rights of convicted prisoners. Thus, we points out that to date, the issues of modernization and optimization of the security system of the CF, strengthening the material base, the formation of modern information and telecommunication infrastructures, ensuring the necessary level of social protection of the PMC employees, introducing modern technologies and technical means into practice of conduct of sentences and many others have remained unresolved.

The analysis of the situation with the rule of law in different countries makes it necessary to draw attention to the global trend of substituting the theoretical concept of a law-governed state by the practice of abuse of power by the police. The abuse of power by the police and other security forces in the Russian Federation is most evident in two areas: corruption and crimes in the sphere of justice. In this connection, it is important to understand the validity of the concepts of criminal law reaction and the practice of its enforcement in cases of abuse of power by the police. A study of the work of the institute of business ombudsmen makes it possible to state that it is focused on proving that security forces «harass business». No persuasive proof is presented that supports this claim. Nevertheless, the lawmakers pursue the policy of selecting a special subject of crime with a lowered criminal liability — an entrepreneur, thus violating the principle of equality before the law. At the same time, it is impossible to deny the commercialization of the activities of security forces who found their own niche in the market economy. This is the niche of corruption. Corruption pressure on businesses most often takes the shape of extorting bribes and provoking corruption. The provocation and incitement activities of the police often involve those citizens who later are prosecuted for crimes connected with illegal trade in drugs, and for insulting authorities. In this connection, the negative attitude of a considerable part of Russian society to the police is not surprising. This attitude is, to a great degree, formed by discrediting law enforcement bodies. Russian mass media have been working long and hard to create a negative image of the police. The authors of the «gangsters vs. cops» series have been especially successful. This leads to the conclusion that the paradigm «business in Russia is under the pressure of criminal legislation, and security forces «harass business» is fake. The institute of business ombudsmen should reject it and focus of identifying and eliminating the causes and conditions of the situation that made law enforcement bodies subjects of market relations. It is necessary to radically oppose the legalization of crime provocation («legitimate provocation») that some authors suggest. Any facilitation to the provocation activities of security forces looks like a decisive refusal to protect citizens, which opens the gates to widespread lawlessness and, from the legal standpoint, is absolutely unacceptable. The existing operative and investigation activities are quite adequate for detecting real offenders.

ABSTRAKJika melihat kecenderungan proses penerapan pemidanaan di Indonesia, maka dapat kita lihat bahwasanya banyak proses pemidanaan yang diterapkan secara berlebihan. Tentunya hal ini menyebapkan adanya over ciminalization pada penerapan pemidanaan yang tentu saja hal ini menyebapkan adanya ketidak harmonisan dalam penerapan hukum pidana yang mana meniadakan rasa kemanusiaan yang berujung pada banyak gejala dehumanisasi yang terjadi. Pada penelitian ini mengunakan jenis jenis penelitian hukum normative dengan mengunakan pendekatan Pendekatan Perundang-Undangan (Statue Approach), Pendekatan konseptual (Conseptual Approach), dan pendekatan kasus (case Approach). Penelitian ini bertjuan untuk mengetahui Bagaimana penerapan hukum pidana yang ada di Indonesia saat ini dan Bagaimana Prospektif hukum pidana dan pemidanaan yang ada di Indonesia?. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan Bahwa penerapan hukum pemidanaan di Indonesia saat ini, masih meninggalkan beberapa catatan penting antara lain; banyak Terjadinya Over Criminalization dan banyaknya terjadi Dekonstruksi Pidana dan Pemidanaan di Indonesia dimana dekonstruksi itu antara lain; Pertama, Terjadinya Over Kapasitas Lapas dan Rutan, kedua, Pengaturan Hukuman Mati yang Sangat Massif; ketiga, Kebijakan Hukum Yang Over Pada Penghinaan Di Media Sosial; keempat, Dalam Penyidikan Kriminal Penyidik Mencari Bukti Dengan Kejahatan (penyiksaaan); kelima, Inkonsistensi Hak Atas Perkara Cuma-Cuma (prodeo). Bahwa Prospektif Pembaharuan Hukum Pidana dan Pemidanaan Yang Ada di Indonesia harus didasarkan pada beberapa hal, antara lain: Pedekatan Restorative Justice dalam Penerapan Pemidanaan; Pendekatan Ultimum remedium dalam penerapan pemidanaan; Reformasi Kelembagaan Lembaga Penegak Hukum; dan Revisi Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP) dan Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Acara Pidana (KUHAP). Kata Kunci: Dehumanisasi, Over Criminalization, Restorative Justice, Ultimum remediumABSTRACTIf we look at the trend of the process of implementing criminal punishment in Indonesia, we can see that many criminal proceedings are over-applied. Of course this implies over ciminalization in the application of punishment, which of course imposes a disharmony in the application of criminal law which negates the sense of humanity which leads to many symptoms of dehumanization that occur. In this study using the type of normative legal research using the approach of legislation approach (Statue Approach), conceptual approach (Conseptual Approach), and case approach (case approach). This research aims to find out how the application of criminal law in Indonesia today and How is the prospect of criminal law and punishment in Indonesia ?. The results of this study indicate that the current application of the criminal law in Indonesia still leaves some important notes, among others; there is a lot of Over Criminalization and many cases of Criminal Deconstruction and Criminalization in Indonesia where deconstruction is among others; First, the occurrence of over-capacity of prisons and detention centers, second, the regulation of extremely mass death sentences; third, the Legal Policy Over Over Insulting on Social Media; fourth, In Criminal Investigations Investigators Seek Evidence With Crime (torture); fifth, the Inconsistency of the Right to Free Cases (prodeo). That the Prospective Criminal Law and Penalty Existing in Indonesia must be based on several things, including: Restorative Justice Approach in the Application of Penalty; Ultimum remedium approach in the application of punishment; Institutional Reform of Law Enforcement Agencies; and Revision of the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP). Keywords: Dehumanization, Over Criminalization, Restorative Justice, Ultimum remedium

The author reveals key terms of water law — water fund and water objects in c ontext of various relationships. The author discloses correlation of these terms with the concepts of real estate, watersectoral complex; understands said terms through the prism of state surveillance, account and zoning of water fund. Water objects of common usage are also inspected by the author. The following methods of scientific research are used: historic retrospective, comparative analyze and extrapolation. Experience of EU, CIS and other countries is taken into account. The article exposes the views and breakthrough ideas of leading scientists of modern jurisprudence (T. Y. Khabrieva, Yu. A. Tikhomirov, M. M. Brinchuk, S. A. Bogolyubov, O. S. Kolbasov, O. I. Krassov), some representatives of the natural sciences and mass media. Russian water fund is not only a basis of water sector, but also is a permanent basis of all economy. Degradation of quality and reduction of quantity of water resources inevitably would harm the wellbeing of the Russian society. Norms of Soviet and Russian legislation are presented by the author in a critical manner. The author inspects the classification of water objects, which is important for the state water fund. As it is stated in article 5 of Russian Water Code, depending on the features of the regime, geographical, morphometric and other features, water objects have complicated gradation. For the purposes of this article, first of all it is important to divide the surface and underground water objects. According to the article 5 of Russian Water Code, the term “surface water object” includes not only water masses, but also covered land within the coastline. These are the necessary features of surface water objects — connection of land and water. In this regard, a difficult question is attended to as of whether the surface water objects have in their structure real estate.

Media freedom in Ukraine which is one of the fundamental basics of civil society development, guarantor of the up-to-date, verified and objective information in conditions of pandemic, infodemic and economical crisis with ecological catastrophe, came under influence of threats which are slowing the democratic development and are complicating the exit from quarantine. Threats to media freedom during pandemic are existing at legislative, economical, financial and human rights defense levels. In conditions of quarantine, economic crisis, infodemic and ecological catastrophe journalists have no access to official events of power bodies, do not attend their sittings. This caused lowering the opportunity to control the transparence of the work of power authorities and other institutions. Due to the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 quarantine a serious threat to media freedom in Ukraine appeared. Regional, city and district printed newspapers which are the closest to their readers by content have suffered on it. Quarantine conditions made especially hard the results of ecological catastrophe in Western Ukraine due to raising the water level in mountaineous rivers up to 10 metres and following severe floods which destroyed roads, bridges, buildings and access to Internet communication. Based on the situation analysis, threats to media freedom and rights of journalists have been differentiated, researches of violation of media freedom in Ukraine during period of quarantine (March-July 2020) by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) and media materials about detaining Ukrainian journalists in Russian prisons during the war on Donbas were reviewed and summarized. The following methods assisted to fulfillment the tasks of research: analysis of documents about regulation of media freedom of international organizations where Ukraine is a member – United Nations, the Council of Europe, OSCE, International Federation of Journalists, comparative analysis of data by international organization “Reporters without Frontiers”, statistical analysis of polls of chief editors of local newspapers by National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. In order to support democratic development of Ukraine, defense of freedom of the local press, its journalists and other staff threats to freedom of Ukrainian regional, district an city newspapers and to journalists’ security had been identified and differentiated, the necessity to fasten in Ukrainian legislation the status of journalism as one of the key spheres of the country’s information security in fightning with pandemic and infodemic had been proved, legislative ways of counterfeiting threats to media freedom had been developed. In particular, in order to reduce threats to media freedom in Ukraine it is necessary to amend Civil, Criminal, Labour codes and the Code of administrative violations by including there articles which proclaim the key status of journalists’ activity in conditions of COVID-19 quarantine. These changes are necessary in order to obtain: legislative guarrantees for obtaining social defense by journalists who suffered violations, to introduce the mandatory insurance of life and health for the costs of the owner of the media; mandatory insurance of journalists and editorial technics (video and photo cameras, notebooks, tablets, smartphones and other digital technics) for costs of media owners; to arrange up-to-date medical treatment, social and psychological support and medical-psychological rehabilitation to journalists who survived illnesses, physical and psychological injuries during their professional work for costs of guilty party and those who organized beatings, injuries and traumas against them. The results of research have very important scientific and practical meaning for improving media freedom and journalists’ security because they widen media-theoretical, theoretical and law presentations about threats to media freedom in Ukraine in pandemic conditions, assist the opposition to infodemic, prove the legal support of journalists’ security and assist to readers’ rights for prompt information without disinformation.

Among the digital rights, besides the right for internet access that was the subject of consideration in the first part of the article, there are also a right to per-so nal data protection and a right to be forgotten (right to erasure).The right to personal data protection is usually enshrined at the supranational and national levels and is protected by the courts as an aspect of the right to privacy. As an independent fundamental right of a constitutional nature the right to personal data protection is enshrined in EU law. Nevertheless, all attempts to doctrinally justify the existence of certain aspects of this right, beyond the claims to the right to privacy, can not be considered successful. The Court of Justice of the EU, while dealing with the relevant cases in order to determine whether certain methods of processing personal data are legitimate, also refers to the right to privacy, considering these rights to be closely interrelated. The right to personal data protection provides additional (including procedural) guarantees of respect for privacy, human dignity and some other rights, but the purpose of these guarantees is precisely the content of the providing rights. The right to be forgotten (right to erasure) is one of the positive obligations with regard to the personal data protection. This right implies correction, deletion or termination of the processing of personal data at the request of their subject in the presence of a reason for this (when the relevant actions are carried out in violation of the principles of data processing or provisions of the legislation). Analogs of this right are the Latin American orders of habeas data, as well as the right of a person to demand the refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity and business reputation, in case of their inconsistency with reality under civil law and the legislation on mass media. In digital age the importance of this right is increased by the fact that information posted on the Internet remains easily accessible for an indefinite, almost unlimited, time.This caused the extension of the right to be forgotten to information that is consistent to reality, but has lost its relevance and significance, however, continues to have an adverse impact on the reputation of the person concerned. At the same time, the realization of the right to be forgotten in respect of information posted online is connected with a number of technical problems that require legal solutions.In general, digitalization does not create new human rights of a fundamentally different legal nature. It only actualizes or smooths certain aspects of long-recognized rights, transfers their operation into the virtual space, creates new opportunities for their realization and generates new threats to them. Ensuring human rights in modern conditions involves the search for adequate legal solutions, taking into account the opportunities and limitations generated by digital technologies.

The aim: Complex analysis of theoretical and practical aspects of study of mental derangement as a mandatory element of limited sanity and development of new approaches to such state's assessment. Materials and methods: An analysis of criminal legislation and researches made by scientists from Brazil, Denmark, Great Britain, Portugal and the USA concerning mental derangements of persons who committed crimes and were considered as having limited sanity, publications in mass media, analytical materials, judicial practice (with the purpose to define certain types of crimes and types of mental derangements of such group of people) has been made. For comparison analysis within the framework of study of problems of mental derangement as a mandatory element of limited sanity 1422 court verdicts were selected from Unified Register of Court Rulings of Ukraine (as of August 2020) concerning persons who committed criminal offences under circumstances which allow to consider such persons as having limited sanity. The methods of statistical analysis, system structural method, method of legal phenomenon system analysis and comparative method were applied during the research. Conclusions: Due to significant increase of quantity of people with mental derangements it is necessary to envisage legally types of mental derangements qualified as limited sanity. This will allow to oblige bodies of criminal justice to conduct mandatory psychiatric examinations after all kinds of crimes when there are grounds to assume that the person during criminal offence commitment was not able to fully understand his (her) actions and (or) control. Consequently, every person having mental derangement and considered as having limited sanity should be subject of compulsory measures of medical care during sentencing, and duration of such care should be legally stipulated with regard to the type of mental derangement. To prevent commitment another crimes by persons with mental derangement and considered as having limited sanity it is necessary to develop correlation programs with certain schemes of treatment, separate categories of people in need of psychiatric help, relevant financing and coordination mechanisms for interaction between the law enforcement bodies and local governance.

All countries suffer from corruption to a greater or a smaller degree. An effective combination of measures aimed at preventing and fighting corruption guarantees success in counteracting this destructive, harmful phenomenon. The role of community in fighting corruption is growing at the current stage of the development of the state and the society. Thus, the right of the public to take measures to counteract corruption is embedded at both the international (the UNO Convention against Corruption) and the national (the Constitution of Ukraine, the laws of Ukraine «On Corruption Prevention», «On Petitions of Citizens», «On Access to Public Information», etc.) levels. This right can be exercised in three forms. The first is the participation of individual citizens who have attained majority in fighting corruption. The second form is the participation of public organizations. Thus, there are about 200 anti-corruption NGOs currently active in the country. The third form is the activity of mass media, for example, spreading information on the anti-corruption investigations. There are also two groups of methods that the public can use to exercise its right to counteract corruption: information-consulting and dynamic (active). The first group includes: the possibility to request and obtain information, in the amount and according to the procedure not prohibited by law, on the activities of preventing and fighting corruption from the bodies of state and local governance; the possibility to take part in parliamentary hearings; the possibility to report the revealed facts of corruption or corruption-related violations, of real or potential conflict of interests to specially authorized subjects in the sphere of counteracting corruption, to National Agency of Corruption Prevention, to the management or other representatives of the body, company, institution or organization where these violations happened or whose employees have a conflict of interests; the possibility to introduce initiatives to the subjects of the legislative initiative on improving the legislative regulation of relations emerging in the sphere of preventing corruption, and on taking measures aimed at informing the public on preventing corruption. The group of dynamic methods includes the possibility to initiate and conduct a public anti-corruption expertise, as well as scientific and sociological research on the problems of preventing corruption, and also the possibility to have public anti-corruption control. Besides, the legislation provides for a possibility to implement other anti-corruption measures that are not prohibited by law. One of the key methods of counteracting corruption is the anti-corruption training of the potential subjects of corruption offences. The authors conclude that the public is a key full-fledged subject of fighting corruption in Ukraine.

The subject. The article is devoted to the analysis of the freedom of speech and access to information in the context of the emerging system of international information security. The purpose of the article is to try to predict the positive and negative consequences of changing international relations in the digital age, to determine the role of freedom of speech and access to information in the context of confrontation between Russia and the United States. The research presented in this article was carried out by combining different disciplinary approaches, including comparative law, comparative politics and international relations, political theory and sociology. Moreover, study includes methods of dialectical logic, analysis and synthesis, as well as formal legal analysis of international legal acts of the UN. The main results and scope of their application. The rights of freedom of speech and access to information is undoubtedly one of the main in the global digital communication context. Degree of implementation of human and citizen rights to freedom of expression and access to information are indicators of political processes, the pace of building a civil society and legal state in current country. These rights are the foundation of modern democracy. The authors carry out a systematic analysis of the categories “freedom of speech” and “the right to access information”, identify the features of implementation of these rights in cyberspace, analyze international practice of legal regulation of these rights and assess the place and role of these rights in the emerging system of international information security. A legal analysis of international legal acts shows that the positions of the United States and the Russian Federation in the field of international information security are gradually converging, and the convergence is going in the direction of the Russian position Conclusions. The limits on the exercise of freedom of speech and access to information do not correspond to the level of development of public relations, because there are no effective legal tools to prevent defamation in the mass media, which in turn can lead to conflict between countries. It is concluded that there is a need for active international cooperation and consistent unification of the legislation of various countries, taking into account that freedom of speech and access to information in cyberspace should have the same level of protection as in the physical world.

Topicality. The article covers the issues of implementation of marketing tools for the development of the ecological direction of rural tourism. Tourism development can become a "catalyst" for economic growth in rural areas: tourism activity is attractive to small start-up investments, because for peasants who have very limited funds, this is a practically crucial moment; tourism is a profitable branch of economy with a high level of profitability, with a minimum payback period, which is very important for the quick income generation. Aim and tasks. The only way to solve systemic problems in the field of tourism is a strategically oriented state policy, the main task of which is to define tourism as one of the main priorities of the state, the introduction of economic and legal mechanisms for the successful conduct of tourism business, investment mechanisms for the development of tourism infrastructure, information and marketing activities with formation of tourist image of Ukraine. Research results. Results For the successful development of rural tourism and tourism in general in Ukraine, it is necessary to ensure the integrated development of territories, in particular the creation of favorable conditions for attracting investment in the development of tourism infrastructure by: monitoring investment proposals for the development of tourism infrastructure in the regions; preparation of a cathlass of investment projects in the field of tourism and resorts to represent potential domestic and foreign investors; the involvement of investment projects in the field of tourism and resorts in international fairs of investment projects. �wner village (guest) houses can not independently provide a wide range of leisure activities for their guests. Therefore, they need to cooperate with other structures that serve the guests of the village. Usually such partners are: � objects of community food (taverns, bars, roadside cafes); � owners of means of transport (traditional, retro options); � centers of folk crafts and crafts production; � artistic and ethno-folk groups; � municipal and private museums; � the administration of natural parks. Supporting the region in resource support: - cartographic and advertising-cartographic support, as a rule, is necessary at the level of the region (the only tourist area); - Information and advertising resources of the region (TV and other mass media, regional specialized sites, etc.); - training for tourism industry: effective coordination at the regional level; - Information and advisory support: effective organization at the regional level (including, with the involvement of external expertise, including international). Conclusions. In order to achieve the goals within the specified priority areas, it is necessary to ensure effective interaction of legal, organizational, economic and financial mechanisms of state regulation of tourism and resorts development. Prospects for rural tourism development in Ukraine appear to be potentially favorable given the presence of significant natural resources. �he flowering of rural recreation should take place under active cooperation with nature conservation institutions of a certain region (according to Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine", subject to compliance with the environmental protection regime established by this Law and other acts of Ukrainian legislation, provides use them for recreational and other recreational purposes). Ukraine has powerful natural and recreational opportunities, for example, five biosphere reserves, national natural parks: Carpathian, Hutsulshchyna, Vyzhnytsky, Yavorivsky.

Purpose – Despite legislation in place, there is still a gap in knowledge and awareness of the communities on the issues of e-waste handling and management. It is important to understand the knowledge and awareness levels of the consumers of electronic products who ultimately become the generators of e-waste in a community. The current study is based on a survey conducted in an urban setting to understand people's perception about the genesis of issues related to e-waste and its management. The purpose of this paper is to study the findings that could help in designing customized awareness programmes for addressing this concern more effectively. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted in Delhi to understand public knowledge and awareness related to e-waste management in the city and country. A limited random survey was conducted with a sample size of 400 individuals in Delhi from middle class belonging to different educational backgrounds and professions. Personal interview method was used to collect in-depth information related to the issues of e-waste and its management. A questionnaire was developed and pilot tested before actual start of the survey. The questionnaire consisted of two sections – first about baseline information related to their age, family size, family income and educational background and second on their knowledge and awareness regarding e-waste and its management. Also, the practices they followed regarding e-waste at their household level were enquired. The questionnaire consisted of both open-ended and close-ended questions. Most of the questions had multiple-choice options, which made it easy for the respondents to answer them appropriately. The open-ended question gave the respondents ample time and space to express their views. The open-ended questions besides strengthening the close-ended questions provided a lot of qualitative information and made the study interesting. Apart from just interviewing, informal interactions were also used as a tool for data collection. During the course of the study, informal interactions were done with respondents to familiarize them with the objectives of the present study, their role and benefits to them from the study. Findings – The present study aimed to gauge the awareness levels and practices of people regarding e-waste management. The survey conducted in Delhi revealed that significant fraction of middle-class population is still unaware of the issue; however, on getting the information they were able to link the impacts of improper management of e-waste with detrimental health outcomes. For those who knew about it, the main sources of information to them were found to be internet, and print media. However, despite some awareness about the issue, most respondents were totally unaware about correct ways of its recycling and management. An important finding of the study was that 12-26 per cent people replace their major electronic goods like refrigerators, food processors, personal computers and music systems within the first three years of purchase. Discarding products within their periods of useful lives leads to enhanced generation of e-wastes. Along with e-waste generation, this also puts additional stress over the resources used for manufacturing of these products. On management of e-waste, most of the respondents opined of need of having efficient recycling units and effective mass awareness programmes. The survey also revealed the willingness of users to pay extra cost for proper management of e-waste provided that there is proper cost sharing between consumers and producers. This also raises an important aspect of extended producer responsibility (EPR). EPR puts additional responsibility and onus on the manufacturer of the product to not only produce durable quality of products but also take back the obsolete products and manage the e-waste. This also means that the manufacturers will have to use recyclable material in manufacturing of new products for economic management of e-waste at the later stage. Although, in Indian context it would be a challenge to implement the concept of EPR, especially with the active informal sector. The respondents quite adequately put equal responsibilities on the government, consumers and producers for effective e-waste management. The study clearly highlights the issues perceived by the middle-class population of Delhi and can be replicated in other major cities for re-authentication of the facts. The study could prove to be important in designing awareness programme related to the issue. Originality/value – This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey-based study that was employed to understand the perception of a sample of respondents. Analysis of the data reveals that the knowledge on the issue of e-waste is minimal and requires massive awareness drives for senitization.

Opposition discourse does not have a long history or established traditions in Russia as it does in the West where it has long become an integral part of political culture and plays a special role in modern mass communications. This paper raises the problem of risks associated with the danger of critical journalism being branded extremism on the one hand and violating the law prohibiting journalist using vocabulary not part of the Russian literary standard, on the other. It presents the results of content analysis of media texts that use a variety of expressive means of veiling sharp criticism of Russian government and mitigating emotions such as euphemisms. Considerable attention is paid to queering as an aspect of the verbal picture of an anti-world. A case study of Novaya Gazeta, the most consistent critic of Russian government, illustrates the impact recent legislation on extremism and the use of the Russian language has had on journalism in Russia and examines the ways opposition media have employed to comply with the regulations.

In May of 2007, the U.S. Congress introduced the Free Flow of Information Act, reigniting the legislative push toward a federal shield law. Though the journalism industry has widely embraced prospects for the law, such legislation would likely create a tiered system of protection among First Amendment practitioners. Back in 2005, during an undergraduate internship as a beat reporter for The Kansas City Star, I recall receiving a mass e-mail from a senior editor. The memo encouraged all employees of the paper, which is read daily by about 700,000 people, to contribute to a legal defence fund dedicated toward the creation of a federal shield law. Without probing the pros and cons of what such legislation would mean not only to the newspaper establishment, but also to society in general, the message challenged fellow employees to meet or surpass the editor’s $100 contribution. That message troubled me, and it should trouble us all. Last year, the U.S. Congress considered two versions of a bill to create a federal shield law protecting journalists from being subpoenaed and potentially jailed for refusal to disclose anonymous sources. Congressmen marked the move toward reintroducing the legislation in 2007 by cajoling hundreds of delegates at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference to 'use their pages in support of the upcoming federal shield law bill' (Strupp 2007). Indeed, such commentary has recently been published by The New York Times (2007), among numerous other outlets. And in early May of 2007, the Senate and the House of Representatives simultaneously introduced the Free Flow of Information Act, reigniting the legislative push toward a federal shield law. This paper avoids analysing that specific proposal, as this occasion marks not the first time Congress has considered this topic and likely not the last. Rather, the thrust examines conceptual implications derivable from a federal shield law, implications not ordinarily discussed by the news media industry. Frighteningly, such legislation would likely create a tiered system of protection among First Amendment practitioners  an urgent warning explained throughout this paper.

The advent of new media has altered the information dynamics that shape public discourse. Convergence, miniaturization, personalization, interactivity, and mobility have blurred the boundaries between producers, consumers, and regulators of information. The role and impact of old mass media such as radio, television and the press, has changed as a result of their interaction with electronic mail, cellular phones, digital cameras, among others. Through an examination of public discourse surrounding Star Academy, the most popular and most controversial program in Arab television history, this article explores how dynamics of information among different media have shaped the Arab public sphere. Based on five months of fieldwork in 2004, the analysis focuses on electronic fatwas, press commentary, new legislation to “protect morality”, SMS messages from fans, cellular phone voting, participatory television talk–shows, and media marketing strategies. The article examines new articulations among political, cultural religious and commercial factors that have been enabled by new technologies and the impact of these interactions on Arab public discourse. The analysis suggests a model of inter–media dynamics.

Workplace violence (WPV) in the health sector is a global public health issue. The magnitude of WPV is a particular concern in China’s health system. To examine the potential causes of WPV, we analyzed 3,045 qualitative responses to an open-ended question in a survey with health workers in the Zhejiang province, China. We adapted a four-level socio-ecological framework (societal/systemic, community/organizational, interpersonal, and individual) to thematically analyze the data. Ten sub-themes emerged. Within the societal/systemic level, we identified three sub-themes: (a) lack of legislation against WPV, (b) suboptimal accessibility and affordability of health services due to maldistributed health resources, commercialized health services, and inadequate health insurance, and (c) unregulated mass media reports. Within the community/organizational level, three sub-themes emerged: (a) lack of supportive health facility leadership, (b) inaction by government authorities, and (c) inefficient law enforcement agencies. Within the interpersonal level, two sub-themes were identified: (a) poor provider–patient communication and (b) distrust between health workers and patients. Finally, we identified the personal characteristics of health workers (e.g., competence and professionalism) and patients (e.g., sociodemographic background and expectations/satisfaction) as two individual-level sub-themes. We recognized interactions among different levels. The weak state of Chinese legislation in this area and lack of high-level political will and guidance (societal/systemic) has left health facilities and law enforcement agencies (community/organizational) unclear about how to address WPV. The maldistribution of quality health resources (societal/systemic) has led to overcrowded outpatient clinics at higher-level care facilities (community/organizational). In light of the insufficient government funding and profit-oriented health services (societal/systemic), health workers were motivated to seek profits by providing unnecessary services, which compromised their professionalism (individual). Provider–patient relationships deteriorated (interpersonal), and patients sometimes held unrealistically high expectations associated with high medical expenses (individual). We propose multisectoral prevention strategies to address WPV in the health sector at all levels using a socio-ecological framework.

<p>The aim of the research was to study the correspondence of existing legislative and regulatory requirements of the pharmaceutical industry development, the analysis of the formation of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, the condition of drug assistance according to European requirements and recommendations of the WHO.</p><p>For the study archival materials, publications in scientific journals, and mass media were used, laws and provisions regulating pharmaceutical activity were studied and a survey among citizens was conducted. Systematic and logical methods, analytical and comparative analysis were applied, and own researches were performed.</p><p>For 22 years of Ukrainian statehood formation the following institutes were created: Pharmacological College, Pharmacopoeia Committee and State Service for Quality Control of Drugs which were transported to other institutes. Important laws were adopted: the Law of Ukraine «On Medicines», the Law of Ukraine «On small-scale privatization», the Law of Ukraine «On large-scale privatization» and others, which contributed to the formation and development of the pharmaceutical market.</p><p>In comparison with 1990 the amount of drugstore chains increased two and a half times and in 2013 in the country already worked 15 566 drugstores, including 3 025 in villages. Specific peculiarity of pharmaceutical market formation in Ukraine was the creation of powerful own regional and all-Ukrainian drugstore chains, that is greatly different from such situation in EU countries, where the legislation allows to have only one or two drugstores. As the result of pharmaceutical market formation the drugs nomenclature increased eight times and now makes up more than 20 000 names, including 92.4 % generic drugs. According to publications, Ukraine lacks about 40 % of drug molecules needed for medical treatment, and 30 % of studied drugs are not proved. There is the problem of uncontrollable turnover and drugs consumption in Ukraine. Self-treatment is widespread today: 82 % of Ukrainians prescribe medicines by themselves even when they feel a little unwell.</p><p>Among all examined 75 drugstores in different regions (Zakarpattya, Rivne, Khmelnytsk, Kherson etc.) people can get drugs without prescription. During 2014 the pharmaceutical market in comparison with previous year rose by 14 % and its income made up 36 billion UAH. Drug producers perform aggressive marketing and break rules of drugs advertising. Among important problems that require the improvement of legislative and regulatory base at governmental level concerning the economic drug assistance for all population groups.</p>

On Wednesday 21 April the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts introduced a piece of legislation into the Australian Senate to regulate the way Australians use the Internet. This legislation is presented within Australia's existing system of content regulation, a scheme that the Minister describes is not censorship, but merely regulation (Alston 55). Underlying Senator Alston's rhetoric about the protection of children from snuff film makers, paedophiles, drug pushers and other criminals, this long anticipated bill is aimed at reducing the amount of pornographic materials available via computer networks, a censorship regime in an age when regulation and classification are the words we prefer to use when society draws the line under material we want to see, but dare not allow ourselves access to. Regardless of any noble aspirations expressed by free-speech organisations such as Electronic Frontiers Australia relating to the defence of personal liberty and freedom of expression, this legislation is about porn. Under the Bill, Australia would proscribe our citizens from accessing: explicit depictions of sexual acts between consenting adults; mild non-violent fetishes; depictions of sexual violence, coercion or non-consent of any kind; depictions of child sexual abuse, bestiality, sexual acts accompanied by offensive fetishes, or exploitative incest fantasies; unduly detailed and/or relished acts of extreme violence or cruelty; explicit or unjustifiable depictions of sexual violence against non-consenting persons; and detailed instruction or encouragement in matters of crime or violence or the abuse of proscribed drugs. (OFLC) The Australian public, as a whole, favour the availability of sexually explicit materials in some form, with OFLC data indicating a relatively high degree of public support for X rated videos, the "high end" of the porn market (Paterson et al.). In Australia strict regulation of X rated materials in conventional media has resulted in a larger illegal market for these materials than the legalised sex industries of the ACT and Northern Territory (while 1.2 million X rated videos are legally sold out of the territories, 2 million are sold illegally in other jurisdictions, according to Patten). In Australia, censorship of media content has traditionally been based on the principles of the protection of society from moral harm and individual degradation, with specific emphasis on the protection of innocents from material they are not old enough for, or mentally capable of dealing with (Joint Select Committee on Video Material). Even when governments distanced themselves from direct personal censorship (such as Don Chipp's approach to the censorship of films and books in the late 1960s and early 1970s) and shifted the rationale behind censorship from prohibition to classification, the publicly stated aims of these decisions have been the support of existing community standards, rather than the imposition of strict legalistic moral values upon an unwilling society. In the debates surrounding censorship, and especially the level of censorship applied (rather than censorship as a whole), the question "what is the community we are talking about here?" has been a recurring theme. The standards that are applied to the regulation of media content, both online and off, are often the focus of community debate (a pluralistic community that obviously lacks "standards" by definition of the word). In essence the problem of maintaining a single set of moral and ethical values for the treatment of media content is a true political dilemma: a problem that lacks any form of solution acceptable to all participants. Since the introduction of the Internet as a "mass" medium (or more appropriately, a "popular" one), government indecision about how best to treat this new technology has precluded any form or content regulation other than the ad hoc use of existing non-technologically specific law to deal with areas of criminal or legally sanctionable intent (such as the use of copyright law, or the powers under the Crimes Act relating to the improper use of telecommunications services). However, indecision in political life is often associated with political weakness, and in the face of pressure to act decisively (motivated again by "community concern"), the Federal government has decided to extend the role of the Australian Broadcasting Authority to regulate and impose a censorship regime on Australian access of morally harmful materials. It is important to note the government's intention to censor access, rather than content of the Internet. While material hosted in Australia (ignoring, of course, the "cyberspace" definitions of non-territorial existence of information stored in networks) will be censored (removed from Australia computers), the government, lacking extraterritorial powers to compel the owners of machines located offshore, intends to introduce of some form of refused access list to materials located in other nations. What is interesting to consider in this context is the way that slight shifts of definitional paradigm alter the way this legislation can be considered. If information flows (upon which late capitalism is becoming more dependent) were to be located within the context of international law governing the flow of waterways, does the decision to prevent travel of morally dubious material through Australia's informational waterways impinge upon the riparian rights of other nations (the doctrine of fair usage without impeding flow; Godana 50)? Similarly, if we take Smith's extended definition of community within electronic transactional spaces (the maintenance of members' commitment to the group, monitoring and sanctioning behaviour and the production and distribution of resources), then the current Bill proposes the regulation of the activities of one community by another (granted, a larger community that incorporates the former). Seen in this context, this legislation is the direct intervention in an established social order by a larger and less homogeneous group. It may be trite to quote the Prime Minister's view of community in this context, where he states ...It is free individuals, strong communities and the rule of law which are the best defence against the intrusive power of the state and against those who think they know what is best for everyone else. (Howard 21) possibly because the paradigm in which this new legislation is situated does not classify those Australians online (who number up to 3 million) as a community in their own right. In a way the Internet users of Australia have never identified themselves as a community, nor been asked to act in a communitarian manner. While discussions about the value of community models when applied to the Internet are still divided, there are those who argue that their use of networked services can be seen in this light (Worthington). What this new legislation does, however, is preclude the establishment of public communities in order to meet the desires of government for some limits to be placed on Internet content. The Bill does allow for the development of "restricted access systems" that would allow pluralistic communities to develop and engage in a limited amount of self-regulation. These systems include privately accessible Intranets, or sites that restrict access through passwords or some other form of age verification technique. Thus, ignoring the minimum standards that will be required for these communities to qualify for some measure of self-regulatory freedom, what is unspoken here is that specific subsections of the Internet population may exist, provided they keep well away from the public gaze. A ghetto without physical walls. Under the Bill, a co-regulatory approach is endorsed by the government, favouring the establishment of industry codes of practice by ISPs and (or) the establishment of a single code of practice by the content hosting industry (content developers are relegated to yet undetermined complementary state legislation). However, this section of the Bill, in mandating a range of minimum requirements for these codes of practice, and denying plurality to the content providers, places an administrative imperative above any communitarian spirit. That is, that the Internet should have no more than one community, it should be an entity bound by a single guiding set of principles and be therefore easier to administer by Australian censors. This administrative imperative re-encapsulates the dilemma faced by governments dealing with the Internet: that at heart, the broadcast and print press paradigms of existing censorship regimes face massive administrative problems when presented with a communications technology that allows for wholesale publication of materials by individuals. Whereas the limited numbers of broadcasters and publishers have allowed the development of Australia's system of classification of materials (on a sliding scale from G to RC classifications or the equivalent print press version), the new legislation introduced into the Senate uses the classification scheme simply as a censorship mechanism: Internet content is either "ok" or "not ok". From a public administration perspective, this allows government to drastically reduce the amount of work required by regulators and eases the burden of compliance costs by ISPs, by directing clear and unambiguous statements about the acceptability of existing materials placed online. However, as we have seen in other areas of social policy (such as the rationalisation of Social Security services or Health), administrative expedience is often antipathetic to small communities that have special needs, or cultural sensitivities outside of mainstream society. While it is not appropriate to argue that public administration creates negative social impacts through expedience, what can be presented is that, where expedience is a core aim of legislation, poor administration may result. For many Australian purveyors of pornography, my comments will be entirely unhelpful as they endeavour to find effective ways to spoof offshore hosts or bone up (no pun intended) on tunnelling techniques. Given the easy way in which material can be reconstituted and relocated on the Internet, it seems likely that some form of regulatory avoidance will occur by users determined not to have their content removed or blocked. For those regulators given the unenviable task of censoring Internet access it may be worthwhile quoting from Sexing the Cherry, in which Jeanette Winterson describes the town: whose inhabitants are so cunning that to escape the insistence of creditors they knock down their houses in a single night and rebuild them elsewhere. So the number of buildings in the city is always constant but they are never in the same place from one day to the next. (43) Thus, while Winterson saw this game as a "most fulfilling pastime", it is likely to present real administrative headaches to ABA regulators when attempting to enforce the Bill's anti-avoidance clauses. The Australian government, in adapting existing regulatory paradigms to the Internet, has overlooked the informal communities who live, work and play within the virtual world of cyberspace. In attempting to meet a perceived social need for regulation with political and administrative expedience, it has ignored the potentially cohesive role of government in developing self-regulating communities who need little government intervention to produce socially beneficial outcomes. In proscribing activity externally to the realm in which these communities reside, what we may see is a new type of community, one whose desire for a feast of flesh leads them to evade the activities of regulators who operate in the "meat" world. What this may show us is that in a virtual environment, the regulators' net is no match for a world wide web. References Alston, Richard. "Regulation is Not Censorship." The Australian 13 April 1999: 55. Paterson, K., et. al. Classification Issues: Film, Video and Television. Sydney: The Office of Film and Literature Classification, 1993. Patten, F. Personal interview. 9 Feb. 1999. Godana, B.A. Africa's Shared Water Resources: Legal and Institutional Aspects of the Nile, Niger and Senegal River Systems. London: Frances Pinter, 1985. Howard, John. The Australia I Believe In: The Values, Directions and Policy Priorities of a Coalition Government Outlined in 1995. Canberra: Liberal Party, 1995. Joint Select Committee On Video Material. Report of the Joint Select Committee On Video Material. Canberra: APGS, 1988. Office of Film and Literature Classification. Cinema & Video Ratings Guide. 1999. 1 May 1999 <http://www.oflc.gov.au/classinfo.php>. Smith, Marc A. "Voices from the WELL: The Logic of the Virtual Commons." 1998. 2 Mar. 1999 <http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/csoc/papers/voices/Voices.htm>. Winterson, Jeanette. Sexing the Cherry. New York: Vintage Books. 1991. Worthington, T. Testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies. Unpublished, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Peter Chen. "Community without Flesh: First Thoughts on the New Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.3 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9905/bill.php>. Chicago style: Peter Chen, "Community without Flesh: First Thoughts on the New Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 3 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9905/bill.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Author. (1999) Community without flesh: first thoughts on the new broadcasting services amendment (online services) bill 1999. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(3). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9905/bill.php> ([your date of access]).

This paper is included in the First Monday Special Issue #3: Internet banking, e-money, and Internet gift economies, published in December 2005. Special Issue editor Mark A. Fox asked authors to submit additional comments regarding their articles. How has the hi-tech gift economy evolved since 1998, when the paper was written? This article was a product of its time. When I originally wrote The Hi-Tech Gift Economy, the Net was still a novelty for most people even in the developed world. Nearly 8 years later, using this technology is no longer something special. This means that it is impossible to understand my article without remembering the bizarre moment in the late-1990s when so many pundits believed that the Net had almost magical powers. Led by Wired, dotcom boosters were claiming that the Net was creating the free market only found up to then in neo-classical economics textbooks. Inspired by post-modernist gurus, new media activists were convinced that humanity would soon liberate itself from corporate control by escaping into cyberspace. What intrigued me at the time was how these devotees of irreconcilable ideologies shared a common faith in McLuhan-style technological determinism. The Net – not people – was the subject of history. This demiurge promised the final victory of one – and only one - method of organizing labor: the commodity or the gift. When I was writing this article, my goal was to attack these almost totalitarian ideologies. The sharing of information over the Net disproved the neo-liberal fantasies of Wired. The leading role of capitalist businesses within the open source movement was incompatible with the anarcho-communist utopia. I wanted to argue that the choice wasn’t the commodity or the gift. On the Net, the same piece of information could exist both as a commodity and a gift. Nowadays, this conclusion is hardly controversial. My ideological opponents have long ago left the theoretical battlefield. We won’t hear their arguments again until the next wave of innovation within the information technologies creates the conditions for another revival of McLuhanist prophecy. In the meantime, it is common sense to describe the Net’s economy as a mixed economy. Information is shared and sold. Copyright is protected and broken. Capitalists benefit from one advance and lose out from another. Users get for free what they used to pay for and pay for what they used to get for free. In 2005, the dotcom commodity economy and the hi-tech gift economy are – at one and the same time – in opposition and in symbiosis with each other. What are some current examples of the hi-tech gift economy in action? Over the past decade, the hi-tech gift economy has moved from the fringes into the mainstream. When I was writing The Hi-Tech Gift Economy, the open source movement was the iconic example of non-commercial production over the Net. In the intervening period, blogging has become the public face of this new way of working. What was once the preserve of a small minority is now a mass phenomenon. Crucially, just like their techie predecessors, the participants in this enlarged hi-tech gift economy don’t have to think about the political implications of their method of working together. Free market fanatics can happily give away their blog-making labor without realizing they’ve become cyber-communists! This ideological inconsistency has hidden the social impact of the hi-tech gift economy. Allowing people to download your photos for free from Flickr doesn’t seem very radical. Putting up your latest tunes on-line can’t really be a threat to the music moguls. Making your own website doesn’t look like attack on the media corporations. Yet, when large numbers of people are engaged in these activities, commercial self-interest is checked by social altruism within the mixed economy of the Net. Before buying information, every sensible person checks whether you can download it for free. What are the impediments and what are the driving forces of the hi-tech gift economy? Is it possible to distinguish between the two? Long ago, Karl Marx pointed out that socialists had been forced to define their own political position to counter attacks by their liberal and conservative critics. It seems to me that we could make a similar observation today about the two sides in the copyright debate. During the past few decades, American and European politicians have steadily increased and extended the legal privileges of the media corporations. Entranced by the neo-liberal version of the McLuhanist prophecy, they’re convinced that the knowledge economy will be built around the buying and selling of intellectual property – and the state must punish anyone who threatens this new paradigm. In the digital Panopticon, Big Brother will spying on you to make sure that you don’t have any illegally copied files on your hard drive. Since the mid-1960s, the ideological appeal of the post-industrial future has protected the interests of the copyright owners. According to neo-liberal pundits, the global marketplace is founded upon the North exchanging its information commodities for the South’s manufactured goods. Economic prosperity now depends upon the World Trade Organisation imposing copyright protection as a universal obligation. Ironically, by proclaiming their global ambitions, the media and software corporations have exposed the weakness of their economic position. Across the developing world, governments know that copyright laws are unenforceable. Only the rich can afford to pay Northern prices in the South. If piracy can no longer be tolerated, alternatives must be found. In Brazil, the ministry of culture is promoting open source software as not just a more affordable product, but also an opportunity to create local employment. At the international level, they’re advocating the replacement of rigid copyright protection with flexible copyleft licenses. Inspired by this good example, other governments in the South are launching their own open source initiatives. In the developing world, participating within the hi-tech gift economy is a necessity not a hobby. During the last year, the American movie and music industries have forced the leading file-sharing services to limit unauthorized copying by their users. But, as soon as one threat is seen off, another arises. In 2005, over three-quarters of online music is still distributed for free. By forcing the issue, the owners of intellectual property have proved that the hard-line definition of copyright is as anachronistic in the North as in the South. Up-and-coming bands long ago learnt that giving away tunes attracts punters to their gigs and – in due course – sells their music. Yet, in contrast with the South, few politicians in the developed world have accepted the copyright laws need updating for this new dispensation. But, eventually, legislation must match social reality. The dotcom commodity economy can’t displace the hi-tech gift economy. Miscegenation is the epitome of the Net. During the Sixties, the New Left created a new form of radical politics: anarcho-communism. Above all, the Situationists and similar groups believed that the tribal gift economy proved that individuals could successfully live together without needing either the state or the market. From May 1968 to the late Nineties, this utopian vision of anarcho-communism has inspired community media and DIY culture activists. Within the universities, the gift economy already was the primary method of socialising labour. From its earliest days, the technical structure and social mores of the Net has ignored intellectual property. Although the system has expanded far beyond the university, the self-interest of Net users perpetuates this hi-tech gift economy. As an everyday activity, users circulate free information as e-mail, on listservs, in newsgroups, within on-line conferences and through Web sites. As shown by the Apache and Linux programs, the hi-tech gift economy is even at the forefront of software development. Contrary to the purist vision of the New Left, anarcho-communism on the Net can only exist in a compromised form. Money-commodity and gift relations are not just in conflict with each other, but also co-exist in symbiosis. The 'New Economy' of cyberspace is an advanced form of social democracy.