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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...

In a case about a Ukrainian journalist being arrested during an anti-globalisation protest in Russia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has clarified that the gathering of information is an essential preparatory step in journalism, solidly protected as a part of press freedom. The ECtHR recognises that the media fulfil an important task in a democratic society, when providing information on the authorities’ handling of public demonstrations and the containment of disorder. Therefore, any attempt to remove journalists from the scene of demonstrations must be subject to “strict scrutiny”....

A cooperation agreement between Russia and Ukraine in the field of television and radio has expired after the Ukrainian government terminated the agreement with the Russian government in November 2016. The agreement had been signed in Moscow, the Russian capital, in October 2000. It had originally been designed to create legal, organisational and economic conditions favourable to the provision of the broadcasting and distribution of Russian television and radio programmes in Ukraine. In the same way, the agreement made it easier for television and radio content from Ukraine or provided by Ukrainian...

On 25 November 2017, President Vladimir Putin signed into law an amendment to the Statute on the mass media that expands the scope of its Article 6. It now allows the Ministry of Justice to apply to media outlets applicable provisions on foreign agents of the law on non-commercial organisations. Media outlets may be required to label themselves as those performing as foreign agents if they “receive funds and/or property from foreign states, their public entities, international or foreign organisations, foreign citizens, non-citizens or persons empowered by them, and/or Russian legal entities that...

On 25 November 2017, President Vladimir Putin signed into law sets of amendments to the Federal Statute on information, information technologies and protection of information (IT Law, see IRIS 2014-3/40 and 2014-6/31) that provide additional powers to the Prosecutor-General and Roskomnadzor, the governmental supervisory authority in media, communications and personal data traffic (see IRIS 2012-8/36), on blocking websites without a court decision. They are now empowered to use the procedure envisioned in the 2013 amendments to the same law (see IRIS 2014-3:1/40) on blocking websites containing...