The owner of blocked ej.ru appealed to the European Court

Mediafocus LLC, the owner of the blocked sites ej.ru and ejnew.com, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Russia's actions. This is reported by Kasparov.ru with reference to the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, which represents the interests of the site owner.

On March 13, 2014, Roskomnadzor blocked access to ej.ru, and a month later, to ejnew.com. The agency explained to the owner of the resources that access to the sites was closed by decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office due to “calls for mass riots, extremist activities or participation in mass public events held in violation of the established order.”

Lawyer Svetlana Kuzevanova, who defends the interests of the site owner, noted that

interference with the right to freedom of expression disproportionate to the aim pursued. Restriction of access on the Internet should be applied only to specific illegal information, and not to the entire resource.

Mediafocus LLC tried to appeal the decision of Roskomnadzor in a Russian court and expressed its readiness to remove the "prohibited" material, but neither the Prosecutor's Office nor Roskomnadzor could point to a specific URL or the name of the material. On August 19, 2014, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow ruled that the website owner had failed to prove that he had removed the prohibited information from his websites. The appeal of the decision in the appeal and cassation procedure did not give positive results.