Search results : 248

A judgment of 13 February 2024 in the case of Podchasov v. Russia deals with the right to privacy as protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in relation to the retention of communications data and content by Internet service providers, the protection of encrypted messages and access by law-enforcement authorities and security services to such data and content. The judgment in Podchasov v. Russia is highly relevant for all member states of the ECHR, also in relation to the earlier case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on deploying bulk or secret...

On 30 May 2023, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation adopted thirteen resolutions to formally reject the admissibility of complaints on the unconstitutionality of Article 20.3.3 of the national Code on Administrative Offences from different complainants. The resolutions, published on 20 June 2023, are largely identical in their content and arguments. The article itself was introduced on 4 April 2022 to provide penalties for “public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the purpose of protecting the interests of the Russian...

In a judgment of 17 January 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that the wholesale blocking of access to a new website of an online media company on the grounds that its content “mirrored” the proscribed content on its former website amounted to a violation of the right to freedom of expression and information as guaranteed under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Although judgments of the ECtHR have minimal impact on the practices of the Russian authorities, the judgment in OOO Mediafokus is also relevant for other member states of...

On 16 December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a Decision (CFSP) 2022/2478 banning four further media outlets to the list of Russian broadcasters prohibited in the EU, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (see IRIS 2022-3/6).  The Council Decision amended Annex IX of previous Council Decision 2014/512/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine. The new broadcasters are the following: NTV/NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, REN TV and Pervyi Kanal. The list now contains more than a dozen banned media outlets (such...

On 1 December 2022, a new version of the foreign agents’ law enters into force in the Russian Federation. It merges, updates and replaces the norms that have existed since 2012 in the Statute “On the Mass Media”, as well as in the federal statutes on non-commercial organisations and on public associations (see IRIS Extra 2020). The new law, “On Control over Activity of Persons under Foreign Influence”, foresees that foreign funding and/or material assistance are no longer obligatory factors in the designation of the status “foreign agent”: a vaguely-defined...