The Public Collegium for Complaints against the Press found the Interfax material mentioning Jehovah's Witnesses to be correct

The Public Collegium for Press Complaints issued a decision on the complaint of Andrey Krivosheev against the publication of Interfax, in which the increase in detected crimes motivated by extremism mentioned by the Prosecutor General was associated with the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Board did not see any signs in the material violation of the rights of believers, no signs of violation of the principles of journalistic ethics.

In early September, it became known that July 27, 2020 The Public Collegium for Press Complaints made a decision on the complaint Andrey Krivosheev to the publication of Interfax in connection with the publication of June 17 2020 "The Prosecutor General's Office tied an increase in detected extremist crimes in the Russian Federation with Jehovah's Witnesses.

As a reminder, Plaintiff contends that the connection between the growth in the number of extremist crimes and the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses contains "inaccurate information about the prohibited religious organization in Russia and creates a negative image in the reader about followers of this teaching . In addition, he pointed out that the report Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, to whom the Interfax article was dedicated, “no not a single word about citizens professing the dogma of Jehovah's Witnesses. Numbers, presented in the disputed material on the crimes of an extremist direction, do not correspond to the data presented in the report of the General Prosecutor to the Federation Council on June 17, 2020" .

Respondent, Interfax, responded to the complaint with an official letter from the First Deputy General Director, Executive Director of Interfax JSC A. Gorshkov. In him, in particular, it is said that the material was not about believers, but about the forbidden religious organization, which is why the words "Jehovah's Witnesses" were taken into quotes. Therefore, according to Interfax, the rights of Krivosheev as a believer are infringed were not, and he has no grounds for filing a complaint, especially since “the powers to act on behalf of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization was not confirmed by the applicant .

attended meeting, Andrey Novikov, First Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Interfax, said that the report of the Prosecutor General is a 120 page text. Such reports according to the established tradition, they are not published, but distributed to journalists for subsequent use. In the Federation Council, the Prosecutor General delivered a brief review of this large document. Since the full version has not been published, journalists did not have the opportunity to give a hyperlink to it. This explains the lack the data mentioned by Krivosheev in the version presented in the Federation Council report.

The Panel considered that the disputed The Interfax publication contains no signs of “offending religious feelings or displays of bias”, and in the course of preparation and editing this material was not violated professional journalistic ethics.

However, the board is not agreed with the defendant's assertion that Krivosheev could not be a proper the applicant due to the lack of appropriate powers. In addition, because material was published in the Interfax-Religion section, the board recalled that journalists who specialize in covering the activities of religious organizations should “be particularly sensitive in their coverage of any aspects of the implementation of freedom of conscience" .

as a positive fact the panel noted “the desire of both sides of this information dispute to appeal for its resolution to the institution and procedures of professional media self-regulation and civil co-regulation without resorting to judicial or administrative proceedings .

Sources

• Complaint against Interfax news about the growth of extremism and Jehovah's Witnesses - Decision of the Board No. 214 // Website of the Public Collegium for Press Complaints. 2020. August.