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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...

On 19 September 2017, the draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries was finalised by the Committee of experts on Internet intermediaries (MSI-NET). The draft Recommendation has now been sent to the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDSMI) for approval. The MSI-NET was established by the Committee of Ministers in 2016 to prepare, under the supervision of the CDSMI, standard-setting proposals on the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries. The Recommendation begins by confirming...

According to a decision issued by the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor, American TV broadcaster CNN International infringed Russian laws through its reporting. The authority did not initially reveal any further details of the alleged offences. The regulatory body announced that a review of CNN International’s programmes broadcast in the Russian Federation had shown that it had breached Russian mass media legislation and was liable under Russian administrative law. Roskomnadzor has therefore summoned representatives of the broadcaster to a hearing at which further information would be given....

The Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) has decided to restrict the free reception of the Russian television channel TVCI, the international version of Russian channel TVC, for six months. The LRTK considered that in June of this year, TVCI had broadcast content that incited war and hatred during the programme “The Right to Know”, in which Russia’s views on foreign policy issues had been expressed. At a hearing held by the LRTK before it issued its decision, the Russian channel’s Director of Development, Alexei Guscin, had spoken on the broadcaster’s behalf, categorically denying...