"Echo of Moscow" intends to challenge the warnings of Roskomnadzor

On November 2, 2014, the editor-in-chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station and website, Alexey Venediktov, said that the editorial office would challenge the warnings issued by Roskomnadzor in court.

Let us recall that on October 31, 2014, Roskomnadzor issued warnings to the editors and founder of the radio station and website “Echo of Moscow” about the inadmissibility of violating the law on information and on countering extremist activities. The occasion was the program “With My Own Eyes,” which was broadcast live on October 29, 2014, and was dedicated to the battles at the Donetsk airport, as well as the transcript of this program, published on the Ekho Moskvy website. The program was hosted by Alexander Plyushchev, with participation from Dozhd TV channel correspondent Timur Olevsky and Los Angeles Times correspondent Sergei Loiko.

In the text of the warnings, Roskomnadzor indicated that the “With Your Own Eyes” program of October 29 and its transcript “contains information justifying the practice of committing war crimes...” “aimed at the complete or partial destruction of any ethnic, national group” that “belongs to to extremist activities" and demanded that the material be removed from the site within ten days. At the same time, the department did not explain which statements by the participants in the program were illegal. "Echo of Moscow" removed the transcript of the program from the website, the audio version is still available on the website.

From our point of view, the warnings to Echo of Moscow were issued unlawfully. The “With Our Own Eyes” program did not contain calls for the destruction of any ethnic or national groups; moreover, the guests of the program emphasized that origin and linguistic affiliation do not play a role in which side the participants in the conflict choose. The program did not contain any theses justifying the practice of war crimes. Probably, the dissatisfaction of the authorities was caused by the position of one of the guests of “With My Own Eyes”, who sympathizes with the Ukrainian side, as well as by the detailed information provided by the correspondents about what was happening at the airport.

Let us remind you that two warnings to the media issued within one year may serve as a reason for its closure.

Sources

• "Roskomnadzor" issued a written warning to "Echo of Moscow" // Echo of Moscow. 2014. October 31.
• The editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow called the problems of the radio station part of a coordinated “attack” // NEWSru.com. 2014. November 2.