On Thursday the Russian government posted online a draft of a bill regarding media fines. According to an article by Moscow Times, the Communications and Mass Media Ministry drafted the bill. Russian citizens are free to post their opinions on the bill until September 19, 2014.
Specifically, the bill is designed so that media sources could be fined anywhere between 400,000 rubles ($11,000) and 1 million rubles ($27,000) for inappropriate content. The Russian government has been placing stricter regulations on media in order to stop any negative propaganda.
“Media outlets that are deemed to promote extremism, violence, terrorism or pornography could soon be hit with heavy fines in line with a draft bill that journalists fear may bankrupt many Russian publications,” according to the article by Moscow Times.
The recent bill is indicative of a trend towards limiting “appropriate” views allowed by the Russian government. “In June 2013, two new laws limiting freedom of expression and potentially press freedom came into force: a controversial law banning the dissemination of material that promotes “nontraditional sexual relationships” to minors and an antiblasphemy law that assigns prison terms and high fines for offending religious beliefs in public,” according to Freedom House, an independent organization promoting global human rights and justice.
An instance of the tight regulation of Russian media, is an article written by Alexander Suturin, editor-in-chief of Molodoi Dalnevostochnik newspaper. This article, published a year ago in September, cost Suturin a fine of 50,000 rubles. The article was fined for homosexual propaganda. Suturin denied that his article was propaganda.
Suturin’s article was written about an interview with a homosexual geography teacher who was also a gay rights activist.
“The Communications and Mass Media Ministry has been among the trailblazers of the restrictions campaign: In addition to website blacklisting, it has also co-lobbied a law banning expletives in arts and media. The ministry's media watchdog said earlier this year that it was planning to spend about 50 million rubles ($1.4 million) on software to automatically monitor and censor extremism and swear words on the internet,” according the Moscow Times.
Currently there are 400 daily news sources in Russia. According to World Bank, 61% of Russians accessed the internet in 2013, and they are currently one of the largest users of social media in the world.
