The State Duma of the Russian Federation proposed to amend the law on “foreign agents” in such a way that it became possible to include media, non-profit organizations and individuals in the corresponding register only by a court decision. “Today we have made amendments to the law on foreign agents,” Anton Tkachev, a representative of the Duma faction of the New People party, said on Thursday, December 9. The recording of his speech was published on the website of the Duma TV channel.
According to Tkachev, “yesterday about 260 thousand signatures came to the Duma to repeal this law,” and his party “has concrete decisions that this law on foreign agents will make for the people.”
Among other things, it is proposed to prohibit the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation from declaring a person an “foreign agent” on the basis of Rosfinmonitoring data, to oblige the state to prove “the connection between the receipt of money and the activities of these media outlets and NGOs”, as well as to remove from “foreign agents” the obligation to mark messages on personal social networks and report personal expenses …
Petition for repealing the law on “foreign agents”
Earlier, on December 8, representatives of the human rights project “OVD-Info” submitted to the State Duma a petition against the law on “foreign agents”, which was signed by about 260 thousand people and more than 240 organizations, including the media, charitable foundations and civil projects.
In November, members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) and the Union of Journalists of Russia submitted their amendments to the law on “foreign agents” to the State Duma. They, in particular, propose to allow individuals not to label private publications and give people time to eliminate violations.
Foreign Agents Law
In 2012, State Duma deputies amended the law “On non-profit organizations”, according to which the status of “foreign agent” should be obtained by Russian NGOs engaged in “political activities” in the territory of the Russian Federation and receiving funding from abroad.
The law on media “foreign agents” was adopted in Russia in 2017. According to it, any media outlet that receives funding or property from abroad can be recognized as a “foreign agent”. In 2018, a new law was adopted that allows citizens to be classified as “foreign agents”, including for publications on social networks.
According to experts, almost any foreigner and citizen of the Russian Federation living in Russia can be called a media “foreign agent” if he at least once receives a transfer or a gift package from abroad and communicates on the Internet. By December 9, 103 media outlets – “foreign agents” and individuals were included in the existing register.
See also:
.