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On 5 March 1999, Russian Parliament adopted after the first reading the Bill on Particularities of Disposition of the Shares of the Stock Company "Public Russian Television (ORT)". The aim of this Bill is to strengthen governmental control over ORT which broadcasts on the first national TV channel. Though the government has the controlling share, its role in ORT is very limited. Hence Article 2 of the bill forbids transfer of ORT shares to foreign states, international organizations, and foreign legal and physical entities. Article 1 of the bill requires that any deals concerning the 51 percent...

The Judicial Chamber on Informational Disputes under the President of the Russian Federation has concluded that TV listings cannot be considered as advertising. Russian advertising law states that the amount of advertising in a non-advertising medium shall not be more than 40 percent of total printing space. Anyone violating that limit can be fined. Two cable television companies in the Urals region were publishing listings of their programmes in a general interest local newspaper. In total, advertising information per se and program listings made up 60 percent of the printing space. The Commission...

In December 1998, the Federal Service for Television and Radio Broadcasting (FSTR) of the Russian Federation issued two decrees directed at introducing strict control over operations of the broadcasting companies. The first is "On strengthening state control over broadcasters' compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation relating to television and radio broadcasting, mass media and conditions of the broadcasting licence ". Under the new form of control, the Department of State Inspection of Television and Radio Broadcasting of the FSTR would issue a warning to broadcasting companies...

On 13 January 1999 wide-ranging breaks intended to revive the national film industry went into force as part of the federal statute amending current tax legislation. The changes in the regulation of taxation were adopted by the parliament in December 1998 and signed by the President on 6 January 1999. Under the new law every contract for the production, copying and exhibition of a Russian film including the sale of rights is exempt from the 20% value-added tax (Art.1). Furthermore, profit tax is lifted from profits invested in film production and exhibition, as well as in the construction of cinemas...

On 31 July 1999, on an order from the new head of the Russian Federal Office for Television and Radio ( Federalnaya Slushba Rossii po Televideniyu i Radiovetschaniyu, - FSTR), Michail Seslavinskiy, the licence of the Udmurt television station Alwa in the city of Ishevsk was revoked. The FSTR had received letters from major American film studios like Paramount and 20th Century Fox demanding that the presentation of feature films should not be authorised without the requisite permission of the copyright-holder. Until then, there had been no precedents involving the revocation of a television broadcasting...