Russia: Presidential Staff Against Amendments to Media Law

Text of report by heavyweight liberal Russian newspaper Kommersant on 3 June

[Report by Alla Barakhova and Viktor Khamrayev: "The Media Law Will Not Be a Criminal Law. Presidents Suggests Removal of Slander Amendment from Agenda"]

As Kommersant has learned, the Presidential State Law Administration has criticized United Russia amendments to the Law “On the Mass Media” that would impose significantly tougher penalties on media outfits for disseminating slanderous information. Dmitriy Medvedev considered it necessary to announce his stance to legislators despite the fact that United Russia officials themselves had already adopted a decision to reject the “Shlegel amendment” and start formulating a new version of the Law “On the Mass Media.”

The draft amendments to the Law “On the Mass Media” were submitted to the State Duma by Nashi activist and United Russia member Robert Shlegel (Kommersant first reported on the draft on 25 April). He proposed that Article 4 of the Law “On the Mass Media,” which talks about the inadmissibility of abusing freedom of speech, should be augmented with a ban on the dissemination in the media of “knowingly false information that denigrates the honour and dignity of another person or damages his reputation.” The author’ s explanation for his initiative was that in current legislation “there is no mechanism for calling the media to account for disseminating such information.” If the amendment had been adopted the regulatory department would have acquired the right to issue a warning to a media outfit for inaccurate information, and after three such warnings a court could ban the media outfit from operating.

As Kommersant has learned, the Presidential State Law Administration sent the State Duma a critical response to the amendments to the Law “On the Mass Media,” to which the lower chamber of parliament gave first-reading approval on 25 April this year. Its comment says that it is impossible to agree with Mr Shlegel’s statement that the reason for formulating the draft law was a desire on his part to “move slander away from being an abstract concept of an act punishable under criminal law.” Since responsibility for slander is already envisioned by Article 129 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, “and Part 2 of that article categorizes slander in the media as a qualifying attribute.” The comment notes that adoption of the draft could lead to “to the creation of obstacles to the normal functioning of the media and does not contribute to the achievement of the stated objective – protecting citizens’ interests against the dissemination of information of a slanderous nature.” Given the above, the Kremlin suggests removing the draft law from the agenda.

Let us remind you that immediately after the draft law was given first-reading approval on 25 April, a number of members of the Public Chamber and rights activists spoke out against it. And even before Dmitriy Medvedev took up office as president (Kommersant reported on this on 5 May) he received a message from Senator Benjamin Cardin, cochairman of the US Government Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, requesting that he not allow the adoption of a law that makes it possible to close down a media outfit for publishing unreliable information. In parallel a stormy debate also broke out in United Russia itself. On 14 May, at a joint session of three United Russia clubs – the left-wing Social- Conservative Policy Centre, the right-wing 4 November Club, and the conservative State-Patriotic Club – United Russia members subjected Robert Shlegel’s amendment to sharp criticism. And on 19 May the Presidium of the United Russia faction in the State Duma adopted a decision not to support the draft law in its second reading and to embark on the development of a new law “On The Mass Media.”

The comment was sent to the State Duma after United Russia had made a decision to reject the “Shlegel amendment.” It is clear that President Medvedev considered it necessary to publicly formulate his position on this issue for legislators.

Robert Shlegel himself told Kommersant that he disagrees with the Kremlin’s position “as there are legal matters and there are political matters.” While acknowledging the presidential side’s right to its own viewpoint, the deputy stressed that he does not intend to abandon his own position. If the draft law is indeed taken off the agenda, as the Kremlin is proposing, Robert Shlegel promised Kommersant that he will implement “all his ideas” in the framework of the working group that will undertake the writing of a new version of the law on the media.

Originally published by Kommersant, Moscow, in Russian 3 Jun 08.

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