A fake news case was opened against the editor-in-chief of Tomsk Week

Vladimir Guba, editor-in-chief of the Tomskaya Nedelya newspaper, was charged with an administrative case under the article on the dissemination of deliberately false socially significant information under the guise of reliable information (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This is reported by the telegram channel "Network freedoms".

The reason for this was an article on orders in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, published by Guba in April 2020. “Why don’t the officials of the regional administration comply with the current federal legislation, demanding this from us?” — asked the author of the material.

As a result of the reasoning, the journalist concluded that the order of the Governor of the Tomsk Region “On the introduction of the “high alert” mode of operation for the authorities and forces of the units of the territorial subsystem of the unified state system for preventing and eliminating emergencies in the Tomsk Region” “is an internal document”, that is, “ applies to employees of the regional administration, but not to residents of the Tomsk region.

The security forces considered that the article contained false information, since the governor's order applies to all residents of the Tomsk region. In the summer of 2020, they conducted an investigation in connection with the publication, but did not draw up a protocol .

The lawyer Vladimir Vasin will defend Vladimir Guba in court.

The journalist connects the case with the dissatisfaction of the governor Sergei Zhvachkin, who in the summer signed a resolution to initiate proceedings after a letter from the deputy prosecutor of the region.

• In 2021, police officers handed Vladimir Guba a warning before the actions on February 23. “They said they had come to warn me about the ban on attending the rally. The most interesting thing is that I didn’t even know which one, ”said the journalist.
• Since the beginning of the pandemic in Russia, protocols have been drawn up en masse, criminal cases have been opened and demands have been made to limit access to content about the coronavirus 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.
• According to the joint data of OVD-Info, Important Stories and Kholod, the reason for the persecution was incorrect information about the number of cases, criticism of the actions of the authorities and law enforcement agencies during the epidemic, discussion of health problems (especially the lack of protective equipment for doctors), jokes, sarcastic or ironic posts.