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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recently made public five new reports as part of the third cycle of its monitoring process of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2005-7: 3). Four of the country reports (Cyprus, Italy, Luxembourg and the Russian Federation) contain specific recommendations concerning the media. A recurrent, two-fold recommendation entails the ECRI encouraging the State authorities to: - “impress on the media, without encroaching on their editorial...

On 26 February 2006 the State Duma adopted, the legislation that on 6 March 2006 President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation signed into law the Federal Statute “On Counteraction to Terrorism”. Most of its provisions have come into legal force after official publication. The Statute derogated most of the provisions of the Statute “On Fight against Terrorism” (of 25 July 1998) to be abolished completely on 1 January 2007. The Statute provides for the principles of counteraction to terrorism, organizational and legal measures aiming at prevention and fighting against terrorism, and minimization...

On 22 February 2006 the State Duma (parliament) of the Russian Federation adopted the Federal Statute “On Advertising”. It replaces the statute of the same name of 1995 (see IRIS 1995-9: 9). The new statute has six chapters and 40 articles. Under advertising the statute understands the distribution of information in any form with the help of any media, which is intended for an indeterminate group of persons and is directed at forming or supporting interest in the objects of advertising and facilitating market advancement of such objects. As before the statute does not regulate political advertising....

In a judgment of 21 July 2005, the European Court of Human Rights has come to the conclusion that the Russian authorities overstepped the margin of appreciation afforded to member states by convicting a Russian citizen because of a defamatory statement in a press article criticizing a politician. It is the first judgment in which the European Court finds a violation of freedom of expression by the Russian authorities since the Russian Federation became a member of the Council of Europe and subscribed to the European Convention on Human Rights in 1996. The Strasbourg Court emphasizes the distinction...

In July 2005, the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of Russia announced a Concept Paper on the Development of Broadcasting for the period 2006-2015. The Concept Paper, developed by the Department of Mass Communications of the Ministry, consists of two main parts: legal and technical. The Concept Paper points to the lack of legal basis for broadcasting in Russia and suggests that the gap should be filled by drafting and adopting federal laws on public broadcasting, on a federal licensing commission, and on cable TV. The technical side of the Concept Paper is focused on the state of broadcasting...