Bailiffs initiated new legal proceedings against Radio Liberty

On May 17, bailiffs initiated new enforcement proceedings for the enforcement of fines against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty LLC, which represents the interests of the RFE/RL media corporation in Russia. It is reported by Radio Liberty.

The bailiffs personally delivered the documents to the editorial office and took photographs of the equipment and furniture. Five days are given to pay the fines.

Radio Liberty's accounts were seized by the authorities on May 14, but it is still proposed to pay the fines by bank transfer.

The Russian authorities fine Radio Liberty and other projects for non-compliance with certain provisions in the legislation on the media - "foreign agents" (Article 19.34.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The media corporation believes that Roskomnadzor interferes in the editorial policy of the publication.

• On May 13, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow canceled 140 fines against Radio Liberty and its leader, Andrey Sharom, due to violations of jurisdiction in the protocols. Another 117 fines were upheld by the court; their total amount is about 29 million rubles. In total, Moscow has already considered more than 196 materials on the law on "foreign agents" in relation to Radio Liberty and its leadership. In April, before the cancellation of some of these fines, Roskomnadzor counted fines in excess of 71 million rubles.
• At the end of December 2020, were submitted to the State Duma and partially considered draft laws toughening the law on foreign agents . So, for repeated violation of reporting under this law, up to 5 years in prison will be threatened. According to the new clarifications, the status of a foreign agent can be obtained by an individual engaged in political activities and receiving money from abroad for this. Another draft law prohibits the dissemination of information from foreign agents in the media without a special mark.
• On December 28, 2020, the list of media - "foreign agents" was replenished for the first time with the names of individuals. Three journalists were included in the list - Lyudmila Savitskaya, Sergey Markelov and Denis Kamalyagin, head of the Movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomarev and civil activist and actionist Daria Apakhonchich.