EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
OF
"RELIGION AND LAW" PORTAL CHARGED WITH VIOLATING LAW ON MEDIA
FOR
PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRESENTATION OF ANNUAL REPORT OF
"SOVA"
CENTER
SOVA Center
for News
and Analysis, 28 April 2020
On 17
March 2020,
Roskomnadzor drew up an affidavit regarding an administrative
violation of law,
on the basis of part 2 of article 13.15 of the Code of
Administrative
Violations of Law of the R.F., by the editor-in-chief of the
internet
publication "Religiia i Pravo," attorney Stanislav Kulov. The
reason
for this was the publication of an advertisement of the
presentation of a
report by the SOVA Center with a mention of repressions of
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Roskomnadzor [Federal Service for Supervision of Communications,
Information
Technology and Mass Media] considers that it was necessary to
indicate that
this religious organization is prohibited on the territory of
Russia as an
extremist organization, although it was not talking about a
religious
organization but about believers who were being subjected to
persecution.
It was
learned in
April 2020 that back on 17 March, Roskomnadzor drew up an
affidavit concerning
the administrative violation of law based on part 2 of article
13.15 of the
Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the R.F.
(dissemination of
information about a public organization that is included in the
published list
of public and religious associations with respect to which a
court has made a
decision that has taken legal effect regarding its liquidation
or a ban on its
activity, without indicating that the organization is
prohibited) against the
editor-in-chief of the internet publication "Religia i Pravo,"
attorney Stanislav Kulov.
The
reason for this
was the publication of an announcement of the presentation of
the annual report
of the SOVA Center for News and Analysis regarding freedom of
conscience, which
was held in the premises of the Slavic Legal Center on 4 March.
The text of the
announcement mentioned, as one of the principal trends in the
sphere of freedom
of conscience in Russia, "the intensification of repressions
involving
Jehovah's Witnesses."
Roskomnadzor
considered
that it was a violation of article 4 of the law "On mass
information
media" (impermissibility of misuse of the freedom of mass media)
that the
publication did not mention that the Russian Supreme Court had,
on 20 April
2017, banned the centralized and local organizations of
Jehovah's Witnesses as
extremist.
S. Kulov
explained
that in this case this indication was not required, inasmuch as
the law
requires mentioning the ban of an organization, while in this
case the subject
was citizens who profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses,
which was not
prohibited by the Supreme Court's decision.
Consideration
of the
case was scheduled for 27 April, but then it was postponed to 20
May 2020. (tr.
by PDS, posted 28 April 2020)
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