Proposed changes to media law which are to be debated in parliament include censorship of pornography, new licensing regulations and an end to the current rationing of imported newsprint. There are also calls for restrictions on articles that defame religious institutions, a widening of defamation laws so that publishers as well as authors can be sued and a mandatory ethical code of conduct for journalists and publishers with penalties for infringement. The freer the press, the healthier the nation,' he argues. Dashdondov is anxious not to give those who seek to control the press a reason to take legal action and reintroduce censorship. Journalists have complained that government officials are a long way from embracing openness in the way they respond to media enquiries.
Most requests receive hostile responses and blank refusals to provide information.
In Erdenet, the site of a large copper mine which is Mongolia's main export earner, local reporters seek to investigate environmental damage caused by the mine. Journalists say they face a brick wall when trying to get information from mine officials and local authorities. This is the only collective bargaining agreement in Guatemala's maquiladora export garment sector and one of very few in the region. In Taiwan, officials are cracking down on the national pastime of betel-nut chewing. Betel nuts are ground and chewed like tobacco.