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On 21 July 2014 President Putin of the Russian Federation signed into law a federal statute that amends in particular the Federal Statute “On Personal Data” (see IRIS 2006-10/29). The focus of the changes lies in the demand that all service providers of the Internet are responsible to collect, process, and store personal data of the citizens of the Russian Federation in databases which are located on the territory of Russia. This rule which apparently would first and foremost affect foreign social networks, mail services, and services to book hotel rooms and plane tickets, has a few exceptions,...

On 21 July 2014 President Putin of the Russian Federation signed into law several federal statutes that amend certain important regulations of TV advertising. The Federal Statute “On amendments to Article 14 of the Federal Statute On Advertising” was passed by the State Duma on 4 July 2014. It prohibits commercials on encoded and/or pay television channels if these channels do not hold a terrestrial broadcasting licence or are not on the list of must-carry programmes (see IRIS 2013-6/31). The ban enters into force on 1 January 2015. The justification of the amendments was the need to stop unfair...

The European Court’s judgment in the case of Taranenko v. Russia illustrates how Article 10, in conjunction with Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association), also protects collective action, expressive conduct and distribution of leaflets as a form of protected speech. The case concerns the detention and conviction of Ms Taranenko, a participant in a protest against the politics of President Putin in 2004. The protesters had occupied the reception area of the President’s Administration building in Moscow and locked themselves in an office. They waved placards with “Putin, resign!” («Путин,...

President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Statute of the Russian Federation aimed at banning swear words in public on 5 May 2014. In particular, it makes amendments to the Federal Statute “On State Support for Cinematography of the Russian Federation” (О государственной поддержке кинематографии Российской Федерации) (see IRIS 2010-2/32). Swearing in films, plays and concerts is prohibited. A similar measure was passed in April 2013 as an amendment to Article 4 of the Statute “On the Mass media”, announcing that swearing in the mass media presents an abuse of freedom of the...

On 22 April 2014 the state Duma (parliament) adopted the amendments to the law “On information, information technologies and on protection of information” (see also IRIS 2014-3/40). They were signed into law on 5 May 2014. The new legislation forces owners of open access websites and web pages (now labeled as “bloggers”) visited by more than 3,000 users daily to register with the public authorities. It also imposes additional responsibility on them for verifying the accuracy and reliability of posted information, following election law, respecting reputation and privacy, restraint from using curse...