Dozens of amendments to Klishas' bills have been submitted to the State Duma

The State Duma has received dozens of amendments to the packages of bills on false information and indecent behavior on the Internet; among others, the State Duma Committee on Information Policy has submitted its amendments, and the Secretary of the Plenum of the Supreme Court, Viktor Momotov, has proposed to stipulate additional protection of the authority of judges within the framework of one of the bills.

The bills on the dissemination of false socially significant information and on indecent behavior on the Internet, introduced to the State Duma by United Russia deputy Dmitry Vyalkin and senators Alexander Klishas and Lyudmila Bokova, which caused a heated debate in the government and parliament and were adopted in the first reading, continue to be the focus of attention of legislators. In the allotted thirty-day period, the Duma Committee on Information Policy received more than 10 packages of amendments to the bill on false information and about 20 to the bill on indecent behavior on the Internet; the date for considering the bills in the second reading has not yet been set.

The responsible committee also proposed its amendments to the bills. Its head, Leonid Levin, reported that the draft law on fake news proposes to prescribe a preliminary notification procedure for officially registered online media outlets in order to provide them with " the opportunity to remove unreliable socially significant information themselves, promptly correct the error" and, thus, avoid blocking measures by Roskomnadzor. " In addition, " the committee's report says, "traditional media, the regulatory regime for which is currently quite effective against fakes, are supposed to be exempted from the scope of the bill ." Let us recall that Klishas's bill provides for the introduction of fines for the dissemination of " knowingly unreliable socially significant information, disseminated under the guise of reliable messages, which creates a threat to the life and (or) health of citizens, a mass violation of public order and (or) public safety, the cessation of the functioning of life support facilities, transport or social infrastructure, the occurrence of other serious consequences ." It is not entirely clear why registered media, which have greater reach and influence than small websites or pages of ordinary social media users, and therefore are capable of causing greater harm when spreading disinformation, should be exempt from liability or given any advantages over other sources of information on the network.

These amendments were apparently proposed after the RSPP President Alexander Shokhin contacted the committee, stating in a letter quoted by Vedomosti that " the mechanism of immediate blocking of media sites can be used by unscrupulous persons to restrict access to reliable but undesirable information, when interested persons - company executives, officials - try to avoid personal responsibility and hide information important to society, deny the facts ." Shokhin also drew attention to the fact that the draft does not take into account the presence of malicious intent in the dissemination of false information.

The head of the Information Policy Committee also introduced amendments to the package of bills on indecent behavior on the Internet, here we are talking about the indiscriminate provision of the "right to make a mistake". It is supposed to give the owner of the resource 24 hours to delete the relevant information and avoid blocking. " In addition, if a citizen complies with the requirement of Roskomnadzor - deletes content within the established period, then he will not be brought to administrative responsibility, if this is the first offense of this nature. Such wording will allow users who published such information by accident or by incorrectly assessing its nature to be removed from the scope of the law ," the Committee said in a statement. Let us recall that the draft law on indecent behavior on the Internet is aimed at preventing the dissemination on the Internet of " information intended for an unlimited number of people, expressing in an indecent form obvious disrespect " for society, the state, official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution and bodies exercising state power in the Russian Federation, if these actions do not contain a criminal offense. Dissemination of such information is considered petty hooliganism and is punishable by a fine or administrative arrest for up to 15 days.

According to Levin, if these bills provide for the right to make mistakes, this will be an important factor " for preserving freedom of speech and freedom of dissemination of information in society ." In our opinion, the proposals of the deputies and the government to adjust certain formulations of Klishas's bills will not make the introduction of the norms he proposed expedient. Issues of acceptable and unacceptable behavior on the Internet, which do not fall under the existing, and already quite strict, Russian legislation, are regulated by the rules that social networks establish for their users. And the best way to counter the spread of fake news is to promptly provide citizens with the most complete information and expert opinions on socially important issues. In our opinion, Klishas's bills not only operate with unclear concepts, but also propose excessive norms and unjustified interference in the right of Russian citizens to freedom of expression; in addition, their implementation will require a lot of investment. You can read our opinion in more detail here and here .

It should also be noted that the head of the Council of Judges and secretary of the Supreme Court plenum, Viktor Momotov, proposed introducing liability for the " scandalization of justice " into this draft. According to him, "scandalization of justice" should be understood as any action or published information designed to lower the authority of a judge or influence his decision, especially " disorganized and unfounded criticism that undermines public confidence in the administration of justice ." Momotov referred to similar norms that allegedly exist in the legislation of England and France. In Russia, where there is no punishment for such actions, judges, in his opinion, " find themselves practically defenseless in the face of lies " or defamatory information " disseminated by unscrupulous mass media ." It should be noted that the norms against disrespect for the court are generally accepted and are provided for, among other things, by Russian legislation. However, the term "scandalization of justice" is not used in either English or French law. In France, there is indeed a norm against publicly undermining the authority of judicial decisions, but it is formulated differently. In Britain, the norm on "scandalization of justice" was abolished in 2013. In our opinion, the introduction of provisions capable of preventing criticism of the court's activities would be another unjustified step towards restricting freedom of speech in Russia.

Sources

• Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Leonid Levin introduced amendments to the bills on countering the spread of fake news and information that is disrespectful to society and the state // State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications. 2019. February 27.
• Ksenia Boletskaya. Traditional media will be given the right to make mistakes // Vedomosti. 2019. February 27.
• Ekaterina Grobman. Judges ask to protect them from criticism // Kommersant. 2019. February 28.