ROSKOMDADZOR PLANS TO PUNISH NEWS MEDIA FOR OMITTING MENTION OF BAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN REPORTS
Portal-Credo.ru, 25 January 2018
The "Agency of Business News" (abnews.ru) on 25 January reported that it received from Roskomnadzor [Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media] a notification about the detection of a violation of legislation on news media, for which administrative accountability is provided by part 2 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (distribution of information about an organization that is included in the list of extremists, within indication that its activity has been prohibited). Consideration of the case in the service is scheduled for 8 February, ABN reports.
An article of 17 July 2017 by the Agency of Business News, to which Roskomnadzor called attention, was devoted to the refusal by the appellate college of the Russian Supreme Court to overturn the decision finding the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 structural subdivisions to be extremist and liquidating them. The headline of the news article spoke about the "liquidation of Jehovah's Witnesses" and the text, about "removal of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization," although the wording "organization forbidden on the territory of Russia" was not included in a note.
However, in the document itself that was sent to the editorial office by Roskomnadzor reference is mistakenly made to a decision of the Supreme Court about a ban of "Right Sector," instead of the decision banning the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
"The accusation by Roskomnadzor against the Agency of Business News is incorrect. Administrative accountability is provided exclusively for failure to mention the ban of organizations that are included in the list of extremists, and the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was added to it only [later ?]," the SOVA Center for News and Analysis commented about the situation. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 January 2018)
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