Russian court rejects investigative outlet’s lawsuit resisting threats of censorship

Moscow’s Tagansky Court has turned down Mediazona’s lawsuit against the Russian government’s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor. A source in the human rights organization Agora told Meduza about the lawsuit’s failure.

In December of 2018, Roskomnadzor threatened to add one of Mediazona’s articles to its registry of websites that are blocked on Russian territory unless the outlet made changes to the text. The article was related to the alleged torture of 22-year-old Ilnaz Pirkin in a local Russian police station. After being held in the station, Pirkin committed suicide. Roskomnadzor asserted that Mediazona’s article, written at the conclusion of an official investigation into Pirkin’s case, encouraged suicide and contained information about methods for committing suicide. Mediazona denied the agency’s claims and argued in court that Roskomnadzor’s threats to block the article were illegal.