Among the addressees of the appeal are Russian President Vladimir Putin, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and other high-ranking officials.
The editors published different texts of the appeals. Although the essence of the claims to the legislation is the same, it is stated in different ways – for example, Meduza has a more rigid form of demands, Forbes has explanations and requests, without mentioning beatings and fictitious criminal cases against journalists.
A number of editorial offices are demanding (or asking) “to stop the state campaign against the independent press”, to abolish the laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable” organizations, which affected the signatories of the appeal, to exclude the media and their organizations, including journalists, from the registers ” foreign agents “, to comply with the Constitution, the law on the media and Art. 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on obstruction of the legitimate professional activities of journalists.
In addition, the Russian media insist on reviewing criminal and administrative cases against journalists and investigating cases of beatings.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov responded to the appeal, stating that “the law [об иноагентах] should be and it will be, “the Russian state agency reported TASS… He explained this by the fact that “there are attempts to interfere in internal political processes from abroad” and for this, journalists and the media are allegedly used.
Peskov said that the Kremlin saw a “rather emotional” appeal from the media, but the country’s authorities did not agree with the wording “persecution” and “not entirely correct rhetoric.”
The Kremlin speaker also noted that the journalists’ appeal “deserves attention.” In his opinion, if the law enforcement of some provisions of this law seems imperfect to the journalistic community, this should be constructively discussed within the community, and then with legislators and representatives of the executive branch.
The law on foreign agents was adopted in Russia in 2012. Any non-profit organization or social movement can be included in the list of agents if they receive financial support from abroad and carry out political activities. The criteria by which such activities are determined are not clearly defined in the law.
Organizations included in the register must periodically report on their financial activities, as well as indicate on the Internet and in all publications in the media that they are a foreign agent. Violations can lead to millions in fines.
In November 2017, Russia adopted a law that allows recognize as foreign agents of the mediareceiving funding from abroad.
To the list of foreign agents of the Russian Federation now enters 18 legal entities, among the media – “Voice of America”, “Radio Liberty”, “Krym.Realii”, “Present time”, “Medusa”.
In Russia, foreign agents also can be recognized by an individualthat distributes materials of foreign media outlets or participates in their creation, and also receives money or property from abroad or from Russian legal entities financed from foreign sources. The list of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation includes 25 individuals – “foreign agents”.
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