The case of spreading fake news about coronavirus against the editor-in-chief of “Magadan Speaks” was dropped

The Magadan City Court dismissed an administrative case on the spread of fakes about the coronavirus against Tatiana Bryce, editor-in-chief of Magadan Speaks. This is reported by MBKh Media, according to the coordinator of the Human Rights Postcard Alexei Pryanishnikov.

The case under the article on the dissemination of knowingly false information (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) was dismissed due to the lack of corpus delicti.

“For more than six months, Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Magadan have been trying to punish the local publication Govorit Magadan for objective and impartial work that helps fight the coronavirus. We proved to the court the authenticity of the information disseminated by the publication, although Roskomnadzor had to prove the opposite, ”says the telegram channel of the Human Rights Postcards.

Earlier, the court had twice returned cases of fakes against Bryce to Roskomnadzor. The first protocol was drawn up in connection with the publication that the doctors of the Children's Infectious Diseases Hospital sew gauze bandages on their own. The second case came over the news that a person believed to be infected with the coronavirus had died in a local hospital.

• Since the beginning of the pandemic in Russia, the police have drawn up protocols en masse, opened criminal cases and demanded that access to content about the coronavirus be restricted in connection with the operation of the law prohibiting the dissemination of “knowingly false information”. According to the Agora International Human Rights Group, as of June 9, 2020, a total of 170 administrative cases were opened in Russia in 53 regions and 42 criminal cases in 24 regions of the country.