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In a decision dated 4 May 2018, the European Commission found compatible with EU law the Lithuanian authorities’ suspension for 12 months of the retransmission of a Russian-language channel, RTR Planeta, on the grounds of incitement to hatred. In its previous decisions of July 2015 and February 2017, the Commission reached the same conclusion regarding the temporary suspension of retransmission of RTR Planeta for three months by the Lithuanian authorities (see IRIS 2017-6/5). In the light of recurring infringements, on 14 February 2018 the Lithuanian authorities adopted a decision to temporarily...

On 9 May 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered, unanimously, an important judgment with regard to the conditions regarding interferences by public authorities with extremist speech. The ECtHR found that the Russian authorities had violated Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which guarantees the right to freedom of (political) expression. With its judgment, the ECtHR urged governments to be cautious when considering what constitutes hate speech and what constitutes criticism of the authorities. The case concerned Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin’s conviction...

On 22 February 2018, a Justice of the Peace in Moscow made a decision on an administrative case in relation to an offence committed by Centromobile Pioner, a limited liability company which owns a Moscow cinema called “Pioner”. The case centred around the violation of paragraph 1 of Article 14.58 of the Code on Administrative Offences (see IRIS 2002-6/34), entitled “Exhibition of a film and/or showing of a film without an exhibition licence”). The case relates to the incident on 23 January 2018 when the Russian Ministry of Culture withdrew the licence to exhibit “The Death of Stalin”, a 2017 UK/France...

At a meeting on 14 February 2018, Lithuania’s Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) decided to suspend the reception of Russian television channel RTR Planeta for one year. In a press release, the media watchdog said that the decision had been taken due to frequent legal violations by the broadcaster. In the broadcasting regulator’s opinion, RTR Planeta had breached the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the Lithuanian Law on the Provision of Information to the Public three times in 2017. It had incited viewers to hatred among nations and instigated war in its programmes “Duel....

On 13 February 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its judgment in Ivashchenko v. Russia concerning the inspection and copying of a journalist’s laptop and storage devices by customs officials. The applicant in the case was a photojournalist with a photo agency, Photographer.ru. In early August 2009, the applicant travelled to Abkhazia to prepare a report (to be illustrated by photographs) on “the life of this unrecognised republic”. On 27 August 2009, the applicant returned to Russia, and on arrival at the Adler customs checkpoint, presented his Russian passport, press card...