The relevant committee approved amendments to the bill on individuals with the status of media “foreign agents”

For the second reading in the State Duma, a new draft law on media-"foreign agents" has been prepared in an amended form.

On July 3, 2018, the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications considered amendments to the bill expanding the legislation in the field of relations with "foreign agents" and recommended it for adoption in the second reading.

The bill amending the provisions of the laws "On Mass Media" and "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" was submitted to the State Duma in December 2017 and was approved in the first reading in January 2018. It provides for the possibility of recognizing natural persons as "foreign agents" by mass media and establishes the procedure for the dissemination of information by mass media as "foreign agents".

The text of the bill has been clarified in such a way that an individual can be recognized as a “foreign agent” media outlet only if he simultaneously distributes materials from other “foreign agent” media outlets or participates in their creation and receives funding from abroad, from Russian Media-"foreign agents", legal entities established by them or legal entities financed from abroad. Similarly, a media outlet can be recognized as a "foreign agent" by an individual who himself creates informational materials and receives foreign funding. " We clarified that in order for an individual to be recognized as a foreign agent, it is not enough just to repost the information ," noted Committee Chairman Leonid Levin.

According to him, it is assumed that an individual with such a status will have to act as " an individual within the framework of the law on NPOs-foreign agents ... and submit reports to the Ministry of Justice within the framework of those reporting forms that exist in the law on foreign agents ." Media-"foreign agents" will have to undergo an annual audit and report on their activities every six months, as well as label their materials in the manner prescribed by the government.

" For additional protection of individuals from random decisions, " the new amendments provide for the transfer of decision-making power on the inclusion of individuals and legal entities in the list of media "foreign agents" to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Levin added. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice has only the technical function of maintaining the register. It is assumed that after a decision is made to recognize a media outlet as a "foreign agent", a person is given 30 days to register or create a legal entity - a "foreign agent" in Russia, and if this requirement is not met, a fine is imposed on him .

State Duma Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy explained that the authorities intend to recognize individual media outlets as "foreign agents" only as a response to the actions of foreign states - for example, the United States.

Levin also clarified that the amendments exclude the measure proposed in the first reading for extrajudicial blocking of any sites that distribute media materials that are "foreign agents" without appropriate labeling. Whether the text of the draft law still contains a provision that allows, in accordance with the procedure established by the government, to block the websites of media outlets themselves - "foreign agents" that have violated the registration procedure, is still unclear.

The text of the bill adopted in the first reading also provided that legal entities with the status of a "foreign agent" would be able to establish Russian media only according to the rules provided for foreign investors (no more than 20% in the capital). In addition, it was assumed that for television and radio broadcasting, the presence of indications of the status of a media outlet as a "foreign agent" when distributing its information should become a licensing requirement, and the media established by "foreign agents" should include a corresponding indication in the imprint. Levin did not comment on these provisions of the bill in any way - probably, the amendments considered by the committee did not affect them.

We believe that the introduction into the legislation of the status of the media as "foreign agents" and the restriction of their activities indicates a progressive attack on freedom of speech in Russia.

Sources

• Draft on regulating the activity of media-foreign agents is recommended for the second reading in the State Duma // City News Agency "Moscow". 2018. July 3.
• The Duma Committee approved a bill on equating individuals with foreign media agents // Interfax. 2018. July 3.
• The profile committee of the State Duma supported the bill on recognizing journalists as foreign agents //RNS. 2018. July 3.