Freedom of information in a new format

In Russia, the activities of the Fund of Svoboda of Information are terminated due to the law on foreign agents

The Freedom Freedom Freedom has existed since April 2004. His main task was to monitor the official sites of federal executive bodies. Now it was decided to rebuild the work of this wide international fame of the organization.

Recently, we have noticed that we are protecting our organization itself, and not engaged in the activity for which the fund was created

The lawyer and head of the information Freedom Freedom, Ivan Pavlov, explains the decision adopted by the organization: “We decided to gradually turn off the activities of the Russian non-profit organization due to the law on foreign agents. It has become simply unbearable to work. We recently noticed that we are protecting our organization itself, and we are not engaged in the activity for which the fund was created, and this is, first of all, the protection of the Freedom of Information. Of course, the protection of the Foundation is also the protection of the indirect, the protection But only we would like to work in a different plane, I would like to promote freedom of access to state information They made a decision in Europe a non -profit organization, which will also work instead of the fund, it will collect funding that the Freedom of Information Fund is still collecting, because the main item of expenses is the expenses of salary and experts.

Ivan Pavlov believes that the authorities made St. Petersburg a kind of landfill to run into the law on foreign agents. Recently, the Memorial Anti -Discriminal Center was liquidated, the voters' league actually ceased to exist, and its leader Tatyana Dorutina, after several searches in the office, left Russia for an indefinite time. The Institute of the Regional Press, which is headed by Anna Sharogradskaya, was subjected to severe pressure from several parties at once. And the authorities are trying to bring to administrative responsibility for the lack of registration as a foreign agent. On November 20, because of this, the Coordinating Council of the Civil Forum of the EU-Russia, expressing the solidarity and support of Anna Sharograd and the Institute of Regional Press, stated the extreme concern. However, on the same day it became known that the Ministry of Justice of Russia included the institution of regional press in the register of non -profit organizations that perform the functions of a foreign agent, along with the news agency Memo.ru.

NKOs stopped carrying out their projects and focused on defending themselves

According to Pavlov, soon many other Russian NPOs will begin to reorganize in order to get rid of this cruel, and most importantly, senseless pressure of the authorities: “I think that sooner or later many organizations that are now under the press of various checks will understand that we need to work and not engage in self -protection. They will go along our path, it will be protopped by that time. They will work in a different format, not to work in a different format, not Distributing for all bureaucratic affairs, the reports that must be constantly taken, not being distracted by the start of the inspection, because the authorities, as it seems to me, have achieved their effects on their actions in connection with the action of the legislation on foreign agents, and they see that the organizations, in general, have stopped implementing their projects And they set such a goal of power, ”says Pavlov.

There is no, for example, a mechanism for removing foreign agents from the register

Meanwhile, Russian human rights activists are trying to obtain from the authorities the adoption of a law that legally defines the path of the withdrawal of NGOs from the register of foreign agents. There is still no such law. “It is very sad to learn that the Freedom of Information Fund is stopping. He did a lot for all of us, for our society, for its openness, in order for sites of various executive bodies to appear,” says Ella Polyakova, chairman of the human rights organization, Ella Polyakov . “Together with Ivan Pavlov and his colleagues, we are trying to figure out what to do, for example, the mechanism of removal from the removal of removal The register of foreign agents, which are recognized as foreign agents The dialogue between Ella Panfilova is very encouraging, but this is only a dialogue.