If the repressions against opposition media in Russia today hardly surprise anyone, then what is behind the more frequent claims of the authorities to completely systematic publications? DW spoke to journalists, lawyers and political scientists to try and explain this trend.
Two reasons to get into the register of “foreign agents”
On November 16, on Tuesday, the head of the united editorial office of RBC Petr Kanaev said on Facebook that he had received a subpoena. The reason was the citation of “foreign agents” in the materials of RBC without specifying their status and the mention of the terrorist movement “Taliban” banned in Russia without appropriate labeling (under the article of the administrative code on abuse of freedom of the media). In an interview with DW Kanaev said that on that day he received as many as seven summons, and that the hearings will be held in December in the Simonovsky Court of Moscow.
RBC editorial building
The chief editor of RBC explained that if any publication quotes people or media outlets who have been assigned the status of “foreign agents”, this becomes a reason for the publication itself to be entered into the register. Another reason to be on the register is the presence of foreign funding, which can even include the receipt of money under advertising contracts with foreign brands. RBC believes that in this way pressure is exerted on the editorial board, a source in the publication told DW on condition of anonymity.
Artificial intelligence in the service of the state
The situation is further complicated by the fact that now the verification of materials in the media for compliance with the laws is put on stream and automated, says Galina Arapova, director of the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, in a conversation with DW. In her opinion, many publications may soon feel this.
Similar violations in the media are monitored by the Main Radio Frequency Center (a federal budgetary institution subordinate to Roskomnadzor) by keywords using a special program, the lawyer continues. The employees of the center send the automatically generated results of the check to Roskomnadzor, and the department draws up a report on the violation and sends it to the court.
Russian supervisory authorities have recruited artificial intelligence
At the moment, all protocols without exception were followed by fines, and Roskomnadzor creates statistics for such cases, says Arapova. Although the punishment of publications for the formal absence of a note on the status of an organization or a person about whom they write, in her opinion, contradicts Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Penalties for the Nobel laureate
On November 17, the Basmanny Court of Moscow issued six fines to Novaya Gazeta and its editor-in-chief, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, for mentioning foreign agents in the newspaper’s materials without the appropriate marking. The court hearings were held on November 11 without representatives of Novaya Gazeta – they were not informed about this.
Roskomnadzor also filed a protocol with the court regarding the online publication The Insider. The reason was the lack of marking in the media publications that it was announced by a “foreign agent” – The Insider refuses to mark the materials of the publication, since the publication is not Russian. The maximum punishment for this is 500 thousand rubles in a fine for legal entities.
Bringing the media to administrative responsibility for mentioning “foreign agents” without appropriate labeling is a fresh rule that came into force on February 24, 2021, reminds Arapov.
Roskomnadzor issued six fines to Dmitry Muratov and Novaya Gazeta
There is a comprehensive change in the legislation regarding the media and civil society in Russia: in December 2020, it was allowed to recognize natural persons as “foreign agents”, in February 2021 amendments were adopted, prescribing to indicate their status of “foreign agent” to holders of accounts in social networks, in April they introduced administrative responsibility for lack of vests and press cards for journalists when covering rallies.
Any media can be targeted
Now the media more loyal to the authorities are not immune from such risks, political analyst Abbas Gallyamov believes. According to him, the Russian authorities realized that the principle of fighting the media with the help of the law on “foreign agents” is effective and solves the set task – it reduces the number of “enemies.” At the same time, nothing is happening in the country that would force the authorities to reconsider this course.
Perhaps attacks on moderately liberal publications – such as, for example, RBC, according to supporters of flexible approaches towards the opposition – is overkill, the expert argues in a conversation with DW. However, this wing is not being listened to in the authorities.
“At the moment, the” hawks “are the soloists – supporters of tough actions, who once again strengthened their positions about a year ago, when military operations began against the supporters of Alexei Navalny,” explains Gallyamov. For them, the differences between the systemic and non-systemic liberal media are insignificant: if the editorial board does not write what they are told on a call from above, it means that the publication is perceived as an enemy, the expert sums up.
Repression affects the entire society
At the same time, rather absurd cases are increasingly encountered: for example, Channel One receives a summons from Roskomnadzor (for showing a plot from an “foreign agent” – the “Present Time” TV channel), and an extremely moderate publication “Rosbalt” is included in the register. Even the Muz-TV channel could not avoid a fine – it was fined 1 million rubles for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors” for the shocking outfits of the Muz-TV Prize participants.
However, this is not only about repressions against the media – the problem of law enforcement practice is much broader and affects the entire society. If earlier there were clear markers “friend or foe” and “flew” only to those who rebelled against the authorities, now this border is rapidly eroding and many systemic people and companies are already falling under the hot hand, states political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko. “It seems that almost everyone has a chance to get hit in one form or another,” the expert concludes.
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