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ARCHIVE
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LEGISLATION ON MASS MEDIA
AND THEIR SUPPORT BY THE STATE
REGIONAL MASS MEDIA LAWS
At the present time, the laws in force in
three regions of the Russian Federation (the Republics of Adygei,
Bashkortostan & Kabardino-Balkaria) contradict federal mass
media legislation.
For instance, the Law on Mass Media passed by the administration
of the Adygei Republic contains restrictions which restrict
the legal registration of a mass media outlet established
by a person who is not a citizen of the Adygei Republic
or does not fall within the jurisdiction thereof. This practice
is at variance with the RF Law on Mass Media which grants
every citizen of the Russian Federation the right to register
any mass media outlet.
The Law on Mass Media presently in force in the Adygei Republic
prohibits the circulation of media whose founders are not
residents of the republic, unless they have been granted
special permits. This prohibition is in direct violation of
federal legislation.
The Mass Media Code adopted by the administration of the
Republic of Bashkortostan contradicts federal law in a number
of aspects relating to mass media registration procedure and
the licensing of broadcasting companies and journalists. The
provisions of the code groundlessly interfere with the civil
legal relationships between the founders, editorial boards,
publishers and distributors of mass media.
The Constitution of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria contains
provisions stating that "the circulation of information
incompatible with the morals, ethics and national traditions
on the territory of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria is
regarded as legally punishable." The essence of this provision
is worthy of special examination. The Law on Mass Media and
Publishing Activity of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
contains restrictions on freedom of speech (including the
possibility of censorship) that are at variance with federal
legislation and international conventions to which Russia
is a signatory.
In addition, regional legislation in the Penza Region and
Khanty-Mansisk Autonomous District damage the position of
mass media, though to an insignificant degree, in comparison
with federal law.
Analysis of regional legislative statutes has revealed numerous
and varied violations of federal mass media law, making it
almost impossible to categorize these statutes in broad groups.
The table given below enumerates these violations of federal
law.
Violations of federal mass media law in regional mass
media legislation
| Types of violations |
Frequency
|
Regions in which mass
media legislation
contains the given violations |
| The inclusion of additional
authorization procedures for foreign reporters
|
3
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Republic of Bashkortostan
Adygei Republic
|
| Ban on publication of any
information about individuals' private lives
|
3
| Republic of Bashkortostan
Adygei Republic
Khanty-Mansisk Autonomous District
|
| Prohibition of or restrictions
on the publication of information on suspects or prisoners
|
3
| Republic of Bashkortostan
Adygei Republic
Khanty-Mansisk Autonomous District
|
| Restrictions on the composition
of the group of founders of a media outlet
|
3
| Adygei Republic
Republic of Bashkortostan
Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
|
| Censorship
|
2
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Ban on establishing an editorial
board as an internal structural subdivision |
2
|
Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Adygei Republic |
| Reduction of the number
of copies of a publication that can be printed without
registration; limitation of the number of print media
with less than 1,000 copies per print-run that are not
subject to mandatory registration
|
2
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Adygei Republic
|
| Limitation of the number
of people whose consent is necessary for a founder to
pass his rights and obligations to a third party
|
2
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Additional limitations and
restrictions in the sphere of advertising
|
2
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
Adygei Republic
|
| Ban on the distribution
of media whose founders are from other regions
|
2
| Republic of Bashkortostan
Adygei Republic
|
| Interference by local authorities
in the civil-legal relations between media founders,
editorial boards and distributors
|
2
| Republic of Bashkortostan
Adygei Republic
|
| Prevention of the use of
the media to the detriment of the unity and integrity
of the region
|
1
| Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
|
| Requirement of an additional
broadcast permit from regional authorities
|
1
| Penza Region
|
| Restriction of the right
of state media to provide information of a religious
nature
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Allowing a founder to appoint
or dismiss editors-in-chief (this is a limitation of
federal law - the appointment procedure should be outlined
in the company Charter)
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Restriction of the right
of residents of other regions to be the publisher of
media registered in the region
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Expansion of the list of
grounds for curtailment of the activities of mass media
outlets
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Simplification of the procedure
for the liquidation of a media body
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Limitation of the maximum
permissible volume of advertising carried by media outlets
not registered as specialized advertising publications
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Establishment of additional
liability for violation of federal advertising legislation
|
1
| Adygei Republic
|
| Requirement for licensing
of media outlets
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Restriction of the period
within which the founder is required to begin broadcasting
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Replacement of a media registration
procedure requiring simple notification with one where
permission must be granted
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Imposition of supplementary
registration requirements
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Establishment of additional
grounds for rejection of an application for registration
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Expansion of the list of
grounds upon which a media registration body may file
suit against a media outlet
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Expansion of the list of
state agencies that may issue warnings to media outlets
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Expansion of the list of
grounds on which the activities of a media outlet may
be suspended
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Limitation of the validity
period of a broadcasting license to less than three
years
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Granting regional commissions
the authority of a licensing body
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| The possibility for regional
authorities to oblige media outlets to publish materials
they had previously rejected
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Expansion of the list of
reasons for refusal to provide information
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Obligation of editorial
boards to allow an individual to personally read the
text of a refutation
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| Ban on editorial comments
in an issue containing a reply to previously published
information
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| The possibility to strip
a journalist of accreditation for disseminating false
information without first obtaining a court ruling
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| The possibility to strip
correspondents of non-local media outlets of the status
and rights of a journalist
|
1
| Republic of Bashkortostan
|
| The possibility to restrict
press freedom and overturn the ban on censorship during
emergency situations
|
1
| Sakha Republic
|
| Expansion of the list of
bodies empowered to sue for the liquidation of a media
body
|
1
| Khanty-Mansisk Autonomous
District
|
| Inclusion of additional
grounds for rejecting requests for information
|
1
| Khanty-Mansisk Autonomous
District
|
| Ban on the establishment
of new cable TV networks alongside existing ones
|
1
| Penza Region
|
| Requirement for the monthly
submission to the regional licensing commission of planned
programming and broadcast confirmation certificates
|
1
| Penza Region
|
Following completion of the first phase
of the Public Examination (at a presentation of the project
and later), regional authorities bombarded us with questions
about what the regional mass media law should look like,
taking into account the violations discovered. In this context,
a model mass media law has been developed that is expected
to standardize regional media legislation and bring it into
compliance with federal law (Ref. Appendix 2).
It should be pointed out that the mass media legislation
in several regions is already in compliance with federal
statutes. These are:
Republics: Altai, Buryat, Dagestan, Kalmyk, Karelia,
Komi, Mari-El, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Khakasia and Chuvashia.
Territories: Altai, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorsk,
Stavropol and Khabarovsk.
Regions: Amur, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod,
Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Ivanovo,
Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kamchatka, Kemerovo, Kirov,
Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Moscow, Murmansk,
Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg,
Orel, Perm, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Sakhalin,
Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tomsk, Tula, Tyumen,
Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Chitin and Yaroslavl.
Cities with federal status: Moscow and St. Petersburg.
REGIONAL LAWS ON STATE SUPPORT
State support does not mean direct funding of selected mass
media, but rather the establishment of a comprehensive system
of measures based on the provisions outlined in the federal
Law on State Support for Mass Media and Publishing in the
Russian Federation and the Law on Financial Support of Regional
and Municipal Newspapers. The purpose of these laws is to
create favorable conditions for the production and distribution
of mass media and to grant equal rights and conditions for
all media organizations regardless of form of ownership,
composition of the board of directors or orientation.
The main idea of the federal Law on State Support was
to curtail government subsidies for mass media, as they
render media organizations dependent on bureaucratic officials,
destabilize the media market, and place an additional
exhaustive burden on the meager state budget. The mechanism
of state support included in the Law overturns the habitual
way of life of regional mass media and forces them to
earn money themselves, rather than beg funds from the
authorities, thus providing equal protection for all.
The investigation revealed that the state media support
procedure is consistent with federal law in only a few
territories of the Russian Federation, namely: Moscow,
Moscow region, Amur, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga,
Lipetsk, Rostov, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Tambov, Tver, Ulyanovsk
and Yaroslavl Regions, Altai, Stavropol and Primorsk Territories;
and Khanty-Mansisk and Nenets Autonomous Districts.
However, there are only 20 regions where media can count
on some degree of state support in the process of producing
information. Far more often, state support is either not
provided at all, or the principle of equal opportunity
for all media is not applied in its provision.
All the violations discovered in our analysis of regional
media legislation have been combined into six basic categories
indicated in the following table:
Violations of federal legislation
in regional laws on state support
| Types of violations
|
Frequency
| Regions where legislation contains
the given violations
|
| Non-provision of state support to
electronic media
|
25
| Republics: Altai, Buryat, Kalmyk,
Karelia, Komi, Mordovia, Udmurtia and Chuvashia.
Territories and regions: Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk,
Astrakhan, Vladimir, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kirov, Kostroma,
Kursk, Leningrad, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pskov, Tula
and Chita
|
| Provision of state support only to
state media, including the registration of only state
media or media in which the state has some level of
participation
|
20
| Republics: Altai, Buryat, Kalmykia,
Karelia, , Mordovia, Udmurtia Komi and Sakha (Yakutia)
Territories and regions: Krasnodar, Khabarovsk, Astrakhan,
Vologda, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kirov, Kursk, Leningrad,
Pskov, Tula and Chita
|
| Vague procedures or absence of definite
measures for the provision of state support
|
9
| Republics: AltaiRegions: Volgograd,
Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Novgorod, Novosibirsk,
Omsk and Saratov
|
| Provision of state support to only
a specific list of media outlets
|
3
| Regions: Volgograd, Orenburg and Perm
|
| Absence of the list of requirements
for registration of media
|
2
| Republics: Mordovia and Chuvashia
|
| Concept of financial support is not
consistent with the essence of the concept of state
media support envisaged by federal law
|
2
| Regions: Omsk and Perm
|
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