Search results : 245

President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation signed on 12 May 2011 a decree amending his earlier decree of 24 June 2009 on must-carry TV and radio channels (see IRIS 2009-10/25). This act amends the list of the eight mandatory TV channels on all platforms (including the first multiplex of digital terrestrial television) as several of them have changed their names (and programme policies) since 2009. Channel Sport has become Rossiya-2 with gradually decreasing number of sports broadcasts at the expense of entertainment fare, channel Kultura was rebranded as Rossiya-K, and Russian Information...

President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation signed on 24 May 2011 a decree “On the Federal Service on Intellectual Property” (О Федеральной службе по интеллектуальной собственности). In order to streamline the structure of the Government the decree renames the existing Federal Service on Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks into the Federal Service on Intellectual Property, as well as adding to it the current powers of the Ministry of Justice as regards to legal protection of the state interests in the civil and economic transactions of the results of research and technological...

The Governmental Commission on Development of TV and Radio Broadcasting (see IRIS-Plus 2010-1) agreed at its meeting on 16 December 2010 on certain rules of the set-up for the 2nd and 3rd multiplexes of digital television in Russia. As was reported earlier the line-up for the first multiplex was approved by President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009 (see IRIS 2009-10/25). According to the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications both 2nd and 3rd sets of channels will be free for the audience. The price of the entry to the multiplexes for the broadcasters is still not determined. The 2nd multiplex...

On 11 March 2011 the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation (the highest court in commercial disputes) de facto upheld the decisions of lower courts that a popular social networking site was not liable for the actions of its users. In 2008 VGTRK, or the All-Russian State Television and Radio Company, filed a lawsuit against Vkontakte (InContact) social network demanding RUB 3 million (about EUR 75,000) in compensation for the unlicensed posting by one of its users of the popular feature film “Okhota na piranyu” (Piranha Hunt). Access to the film was apparently free of charge. Vkontakte...

On 17 March 2011, Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, presented the regular report to the OSCE Permanent Council, the organisation’s main decision-making body. The report consists of overviews of issues raised in the participating countries, activities of the Representative in the last reporting period and planned activities for the next reporting period. A large part of the report consists of the analysis of issues raised in 56 of the OSCE participating States. The report touches upon several issues concerning media freedom, inter alia, media pluralism, editorial...