Harmonization of Media Legislation in the Eurasian Economic Union Countries as a Factor of Information Security

Abstract

The article substantiates the need to harmonize the national laws governing the activities of the media of the EAEU countries in order to ensure information security in the post-Soviet space in the context of exacerbation of international geopolitical conflicts and intensification of information confrontation. The authors identify some aspects of media space regulation that are not robust legislatively including the conceptual apparatus, regulation of social media and copyright on social media platforms. The study analyzed main legislative acts regulating the activities of mass media in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. To clarify the meaning of legal norms some other laws and instructions were also taken into account. The article examines current regulatory framework according to a number of parameters identified by the authors for possible contradictions that hinder the formation of the unified information space of the Union. The analysis revealed discrepancies in legislation including requirements for media registration and accreditation of journalists, the use of language in the media, the supremacy of international treaties, as well as indications of the possibilities of international cooperation in the field of mass media. The study identified possible directions of work on the harmonization of the federal and republican legislations of the member states at the national and supranational levels. The authors proposed variants of harmonization, among them the compilation of a reference glossary of key concepts, model laws and a unifying set of legal norms common to all states. The study contains an assumption about the expediency of gradual harmonization using various tools.