The State Duma adopted a law on blocking and stopping the work of the media

By the second reading, the provisions on the out-of-court termination of the work of Russian media were slightly relaxed.

On June 29, 2022, the State Duma of Russia adopted in the second reading a bill that expands the mechanisms for extrajudicial blocking at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, giving this department the right to ban the activities of foreign media as a response to the closure of Russian media abroad, as well as to deprive Russian media of registration and licenses for broadcasting distribution all kinds of "unreliable information", "discrediting" the actions of the Armed Forces and officials abroad, "disrespect for the authorities", calls for sanctions, rallies, riots and "propaganda, substantiation and (or) justification" of extremism.

On June 30, the law was adopted in the third reading.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma by the commission on outside interference on April 6, 2022 and adopted in the first reading in May. After consultations with representatives of the Union of Journalists of Russia and other structures, some changes were made to the bill, which were reflected in the text adopted in the second reading.

Amendments regarding blocking are being made to the federal law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection". In Art. 15.3 of this law, which describes the mechanism of out-of-court blocking, the following grounds for blocking are added:

• "inaccurate information disseminated under the guise of reliable reports" about the use of the RF Armed Forces ; abroad in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, maintain international peace and security, as well as on the exercise by state bodies of Russia of their powers abroad for the same purposes;
• information aimed at "discrediting" the use of aircraft abroad, including calls to prevent their use, as well as aimed at discrediting the exercise of powers by state bodies abroad;
• information containing calls for the introduction of political, economic or other sanctions against the Russian Federation, its citizens or Russian legal entities.

In addition, it is clarified that the blocking of other " unreliable publicly significant information " distributed under the guise of reliable messages" will apply not only to such information that entails a threat of mass disruption of public order, public safety or interference with the functioning of infrastructure, but also to such which has had such dire consequences.

The law is also proposed to be supplemented by Art. 15.3-2, dedicated to the blocking of sites that have repeatedly posted illegal information specified in Art. 15.1, 15.1-1, 15.3, 15.3-1 of the law (that is, any type of illegal information subject to blocking both out of court and by court decisions, except for discrediting honor and dignity, pirated content and violations of the law on personal data). It is assumed that the Prosecutor General and his deputies will be able to apply to Roskomnadzor with a requirement to permanently block such resources in their entirety. Roskomnadzor, in turn, will have to immediately forward the request to providers, and they will have to restrict access (if Roskomnadzor itself did not do this under clause 5.1 of article 46 of the Federal Law "On Communications", that is, using "technical means of countering threats" - infrastructure "sovereign internet"). Moreover, Roskomnadzor will also have to control the blocking of resources "confusingly similar" to those blocked. The law states that "removal of access restrictions" to such blocked resources "is not allowed."

Amendments to the law "On measures of influence on persons involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation" provide that in the event of a ban (restriction) on the activities of the Russian media on the territory of a foreign state, the Prosecutor General or his deputy, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may decide to ban on the territory of Russia any media from this foreign state if it distributes its products in Russia (regardless of its content).

Russian media are understood as media registered in Russia and operating abroad under a license, as well as other media operating abroad, established by the Russian Federation, its constituent entities, individuals or legal entities, or distributing products in the state language of Russia, its constituent entities or other languages ​​of the peoples of Russia.

The activities of foreign media, according to the law, are considered prohibited from the date of publication by Roskomnadzor of the decision taken by the Prosecutor General's Office. After that, the distribution of any information materials of this media, including through other media and the Internet, as well as the production and storage of such materials for distribution purposes will be prohibited. Correspondents of this media outlet will be deprived of accreditation, and its representative offices will have to close. Banks will be required to stop serving such media (by analogy with "undesirable organizations"). In addition, this media will not be able to establish a legal entity in Russia and participate in them. By the second reading, the list of sanctions also included the annulment of registration and the deprivation of the license to broadcast such media.

The law provides that the cancellation of the decision to ban the activities of a foreign media outlet is possible only after "after the elimination of the circumstances that served as the basis for its adoption" and is carried out by the Prosecutor General and his deputies in agreement with the Foreign Ministry.

The law "On Mass Media" is being amended to allow the Prosecutor General's Office to extrajudicially suspend the activities of media outlets registered in Russia, cancel registration and deprive media outlets of their licenses . The grounds for such actions, according to the law, may be the spread of:

• "inaccurate socially significant information" that creates various threats (the so-called fake news );
• "inaccurate information" containing data on the use of the Armed Forces abroad and the exercise of powers by government agencies abroad;
• "inaccurate information about the circumstances that pose a threat to the life and security of citizens ... and about the measures taken to ensure the security of the population and territories";
• "information expressing in an indecent form that offends human dignity and public morality, a clear disrespect for society, the state, official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation or bodies exercising state power in the Russian Federation";
• "information aimed at discrediting the use" of the Armed Forces, including calls to prevent their use, as well as aimed at discrediting the powers of government agencies abroad;
• information calling for "organization and (or) participation in unauthorized public events", "massive violations of public order and (or) public security", the imposition of sanctions, or "containing propaganda, justification and (or) justification for extremist activities . "

In the original text of the bill, it was proposed to immediately deregister media outlets and revoke the license. The version adopted in the second reading provides that, first, the prosecutor's office must issue a request to the media to suspend activities for up to three months. In the event of a repeated violation, media activities may be suspended for up to six months. In both cases, Roskomnadzor will be able to decide on the resumption of the work of the media if it has stopped disseminating information considered illegal. And only in the case of "repeated" dissemination of such information, the Prosecutor General's Office will deprive the media of registration and broadcasting licenses.

Despite the criticism of the professional community, the law remains an indication that the media and their employees will be responsible for reprinting materials from other media that contain all of the above types of information.

Sources

• Draft Law No. 101646-8 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (in terms of clarifying the procedure for disseminating information) // CREATION GAS "Lawmaking". 2022. June 30.