Printing evil

The State Duma on Tuesday approved in the first reading a bill introducing fines for the unauthorized distribution of foreign print media. Such information is contained in the card card on the website of the lower house.

The bill was introduced by the government on January 21. It makes amendments to the disposition of part 1 of Article 13.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the manufacturing or distribution of media products). For the distribution of foreign print media, "not having permission to distribute", the bill proposes to provide a fine of 1000 to 1,500 rubles for citizens, from 2 to 3 thousand for officials and from 20 to 30 thousand rubles for legal entities.

The copies of publications themselves are supposed to confiscate as a "subject of an offense."

The media law contains an indication that for legal distribution in Russia, a foreign publication must receive a special permit issued on a written application in Roskomnadzor. However, the sanctions for violation of this norm in the Code of Administrative Offenses have not yet been introduced. For the first time with the initiative to provide such sanctions in 2017 by the Ministry of Communications .

As of April 3, 264 publications are included in the RKN register, which received permission to distribute.