The Plenum of the Supreme Court is preparing a resolution on comments in online media

On June 4, 2010, the drafting committee for preparing a draft resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the practice of applying the law on the media announced some details of its work.

In particular, it was announced that on the problem of editing readers' comments left in the Internet media, the following option is proposed. Readers will be able to leave comments on Internet media sites, both with and without preliminary editing (in the latter case, the editors are not able to make changes to comments before they appear on the site). But then, if Roskomnadzor or the prosecutor's office suspects that a certain comment contains signs of extremism, they will send a corresponding letter to the editorial office. After that, the editors will either have to delete or edit the comment, or leave it on the site if it considers that it does not violate the law, while taking responsibility for the legality of the content of the comment. Similarly, it is suggested to act if someone makes a report that the comment contains slander.

In our opinion, this would be an acceptable way to solve the problem (they work similarly with such a genre as letters from readers, print media). This would eliminate the possibility of continuing the practice of punishing the media for the comments of their readers.

The potential for illegal practice may lie in the fact that the time frame and procedure for contacting the editorial office by Roskomnadzor are not defined.

We also note that sites that are not registered as mass media will not be affected by the innovations.

Sources

• Internet media will be able to edit comments at the request of Roskomnadzor // RIA News. 2010. June 4.