The Butyrsky District Court of Moscow registered the case materials against the editor-in-chief of Mediazona, Sergei Smirnov, due to the lack of a “foreign agent” marking (Part 4 of Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Mediazona drew attention to the card in the Moscow courts’ database.
The case was filed with the court on October 9. The hearing date has not yet been set.
Previously, Smirnov had two reports drawn up for not having a "foreign agent" marking. The first time he was fined 10,000 rubles in July 2022, the second time - 30,000 rubles in July 2023.
The Ministry of Justice added the journalist to the register of “foreign agent” media outlets in September 2021. On the same day, Mediazona and its former publisher Pyotr Verzilov were added to the same list.
- The legislation on "foreign agents" is becoming stricter every year. On December 1, 2022, the law "On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence" came into force, as well as numerous legislative amendments to the "foreign agent" regulation. You can read about the list of "affiliated persons", new registers and other innovations in the law on "foreign agents" in the analysis of OVD-Info .
- In addition, Vladimir Putin signed a law on imprisonment for up to five years for “foreign agents” who were held accountable twice in one year for violating the procedure for the activities of a “foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
- In the fall of 2021, OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project . We study the practice of applying laws on "foreign agents", talk about their impact on civil society and specific people, initiate discussions with experts and propose ways of possible changes. In December 2021, together with the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, we began providing legal support to people and organizations that ended up on the registers of "foreign agents".