Pskov News Tape was fined 200 thousand rubles for a journalist’s statement about the explosion in Arkhangelsk

In Pskov, the magistrate of court district No. 31, Natalya Simonova, imposed a fine of 200 thousand rubles on the publication “Pskovskaya Lenta Novostei” because of a statement by journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva about an explosion in the reception room of the FSB directorate in the Arkhangelsk region. Maxim Kostikov, general director of Civil Press LLC, which includes Pskov News Tape, reported this to Mediazona.

According to Kostikov, the fine was imposed under Part 6 of Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code (production or release of media products containing public calls for terrorism or justifying terrorism). Previously, under a similar article, the magistrate issued a fine of 150 thousand rubles to Echo of Moscow in Pskov.

The reason for the administrative cases was the journalist’s speech on the air of Echo of Moscow in Pskov. In her words, the investigation found justification for the explosion in the reception room of the FSB directorate for the Arkhangelsk region. The text version of the broadcast was published on Prokopieva’s blog on the Pskov News Feed.

A criminal case has been opened against Svetlana Prokopyeva, a correspondent for Radio Liberty and the former editor-in-chief of Pskov Province, under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public justification of terrorism). According to it, on February 6, security forces conducted searches of the journalist herself, and then came to the editorial office of Ekho Moskvy in Pskov.