Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan has approved a law “ On state secrets” and forwarded it to the Senate for further review, the newspaper "Narodnoe Slovo" reported.

The current law, "On the Protection of State Secrets," enacted in 1993, requires updating to enhance the legal framework in this area.

The new legislation establishes the powers of agencies responsible for protecting state secrets, defines the levels of information confidentiality, the terms of information classification, and the procedures for granting access to such data.

The law introduces a limited list of four categories of information classified as state secrets. This list includes only information whose disclosure could seriously harm the defense capability, state security, economic, and political interests of Uzbekistan.

Unlike the 1993 law, which allowed classification of information that posed a threat to citizens’ personal safety, the new law excludes information about emergencies, crime rates, and human rights violations from classification.

The new law also categorizes state secrets into three types: state, military, and service secrets.

- State Secrets: Information whose disclosure could negatively impact the country’s military-economic potential or have other severe consequences for defense and state security.

- Military Secrets: Information of a military nature whose disclosure could significantly impair the defense capability and security of the armed forces of Uzbekistan.

- Service Secrets: Information in the fields of science, technology, production, and management whose disclosure could harm national interests.

The list of state secrets was planned for review back in 2020 to eliminate unjustified restrictions on access to information necessary for the development of science, IT, and business.