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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...

On 19 March 2014 the Judicial Collegium on administrative cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made a resolution on an appeal complaint from JSC “News Agency Rosbalt”. The Supreme Court looked into warnings sent by Roskomnadzor (the federal media and telecommunications watchdog) on 12 and 25 July 2013 to the editorial office of the online news service Rosbalt. Roskomnadzor claimed that Rosbalt had abused media freedom by posting materials that contained obscene language. According to the media law, two warnings may lead to a demand by Roskomnadzor that the court annuls a media registration...

On 30 December 2013 President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation signed into law a bill adopted by the State Duma (parliament) on 17 December 2013, in a first reading, and on 20 December 2013, in the second and the third readings. The bill amends Article 15 of the Law on Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information (see IRIS 2013-8/33) so as to allow the Prosecutor General and his deputies to order blocking websites containing content such as calls to unsanctioned public protests and to “extremist” activities. The act now introduces the following procedure: without judicial...

On 2 July 2013, the President of the Russian Federation signed into law the Federal Statute amending several provisions of the Russian Civil Code. This law was adopted as part of the civil legislation reform underway in Russia. Under the new law some aspects of non-material values protection are regulated in a slightly different way (including inter alia protection against defamation and protection of person’s image, see IRIS 2013-8/32), and some brand-new provisions introduced (protection of privacy). The major focus of the Statute is the development of new legal mechanisms for the protection...