| Alexander Veshnyakov promised journalists a difficult life The head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, at the “Media on the Eve of the Elections” conference that opened yesterday, explained to the journalistic community the essence of the presidential amendments to a number of laws regulating the work of the media during the election campaign. According to journalists themselves, these amendments make it very difficult for the media to cover the elections. For example, in order to eliminate pre-election campaigning, the media are required to write about all candidates equally. It is extremely difficult to comply with this requirement, given that ballot papers usually do not suffer from brevity. The amendments also establish new grounds for suspending the activities of a media outlet: if it violates election legislation twice, the Central Election Commission of Russia or the regional election commission can apply to the court with a corresponding petition. And for conducting election campaigning using calls for extremism, a journalist could even go to jail. The president is strict not only with the media, but also with candidates: it is proposed to introduce criminal liability for abuse in the process of spending election funds, drawing up deliberately false election documents and falsifying election results.
Alexander Veshnyakov hastened to reassure journalists yesterday: “These amendments are not a blow to freedom of speech, as some claim, but a blow to the freedom to lie, to ‘black cash’, ‘dirty technologies’ and administrative excesses.”
The journalistic community, and primarily representatives of regional media, greeted the CEC's initiatives with great caution. According to many, the new proposals open up unlimited opportunities for the CEC to control the current activities and pre-election editorial policy of the media. Editor-in-Chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station Alexey Venediktov, representing the Industrial Committee, said that the amendments of the Central Election Commission will be considered and analyzed at the next meeting of the committee on March 19.
One can only imagine what a storm the presidential innovations will cause in the Duma. Already now they are being sharply criticized by many deputies. “Everything must be done to ensure that these amendments are not adopted,” Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Yabloko faction, told a Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent. - Otherwise, there will be a total reprisal against the media, naturally, first of all against those who act contrary to the plans of the authorities regarding the elections. The only thing that can be welcomed is the introduction of criminal penalties for election fraud. Naturally, government factions will vote “yes” because the amendments will help them free themselves from electoral competitors. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation will be against it and, of course, we will.”
“There should be reasonable regulation of the media during the election campaign. No society can afford to have a completely freewheeling and independent press that obeys no one and takes no account of anyone. But today we cannot determine how pre-election campaigning and propaganda differ from simple materials about elections,” Gennady Gudkov from the People’s Deputy group expressed doubts in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper. - We can put the media in a situation where they will not be able to objectively comment on the elections. This can be seen as their hidden participation in agitation and propaganda. It seems to me that we first need to put things in order with this concept, and only then introduce some kind of regulatory provisions into the law on the media.” Maxim BALUTENKO |
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