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A new set of amendments further expanding the scope of the Russian Federation’s Federal Statute of 2012 entitled “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation with regard to regulating the activities of non-commercial organisations acting as foreign agents”, commonly known as the “Foreign Agents” Statute (see IRIS Extra 2020), was adopted by the State Duma on 23 December and signed by the President on 30 December 2020. It entered into force on the same day. It now allows for this label to be applied to ordinary citizens, as well as to public...

On 23 September 2020, Roskomnadzor, the Russian governmental supervisory authority in media and communications (see IRIS 2012-8/36), issued a decree that approved the standard text and procedure for publishing the imprint of a registered media outlet founded with the participation of a Russian legal entity that performs the functions of a “foreign agent” (see IRIS 2020-1/6). This was a requirement of Article 27 of the Statute of the Russian Federation “On the Mass Media” (О средствах массовой информации), as amended on 2 December 2019. The decree was duly registered by the...

Mobile apps that distribute unlicensed content can now be blocked within three days. On 1 October, the law on the possible blocking of applications that violate copyright came into force. According to the new regulation, the rightsholder is entitled to request the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, RKN, to block the infringing application. RKN, in turn, informs the owner of the resource hosting the dubious mobile app about copyright infringement and requires it to be blocked. Within one business day, the resource must pass this information...

Again, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found a violation of the right to freedom of expression on the Internet in Russia (see also Vladimir Kharitonov v. Russia, OOO Flavus and Others v. Russia, Bulgakov v. Russia and Engels v. Russia reported in Iris 2020:8). In a defamation case, the domestic judicial authorities have failed to establish convincingly and in conformity with the principles embodied in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that there had been a pressing social need to impose a high amount of damages to be paid by an online news platform for...

In four judgments of 23 June 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that the blocking of websites and media platforms in Russia had violated the right to freedom of expression and information as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The cases concern different types of blocking measures, including collateral blocking (where the IP address that was blocked was shared with other sites), excessive blocking (where the whole website was blocked because of a single page or file) and wholesale blocking of media outlets for their news coverage. One...