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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...

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...