Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov in an interview with Tina Kandelaki on RTVi TV channel commented on the law on “foreign agents”. “Law is law. No matter how talented you are, if you are talking about politics with foreign money – if you please stick a label, ”said Peskov.
The presidential press secretary also stressed that “practically everything is connected with politics.”
“The very fact of the need for this law in our legal system is probably no longer disputed,” Peskov emphasized. According to him, there are NGOs and media outlets that either are involved in politics, or write about it, and can also receive money from abroad. “There are such? – There is. Should they be numbered? – Necessary. Is this a ban on activities? “It isn’t,” the Kremlin spokesman assures.
Contrary to Peskov’s assertion, the law does not specify what a journalist should or should not talk about in order not to be included in the black list of “foreign agents”. Only two criteria are indicated there: distribution of materials created either by foreign media performing the functions of a foreign agent, or by its Russian “daughter”; “Receiving money and other property from foreign states, international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, stateless persons, foreign media performing the functions of a foreign agent”.
The repressive law also contains a loophole that allows it to be applied arbitrarily: “an individual may be recognized by the media as performing the functions of a foreign agent ”. The law does not impose any obligation to “stick a label” on journalists.
The arbitrary nature of the application of the law is also evidenced by the fact that state-owned media outlets TASS and RT are not included in the list of “foreign agents”, although they receive foreign funding and “write about politics.”
In the fall, the Ministry of Finance proposed expanding the list of mass media that may not report to Roskomnadzor at all on receiving funds from foreign sources. They decided to include those media outlets founded by federal government bodies or financed by subsidies from the budget. Nowadays, representative offices of foreign media that operate in Russia with the permission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as media outlets created under international treaties of Russia, may not report to Roskomnadzor.
The Law on Mass Media – “Foreign Agents” was adopted in 2017. The first to enter this register were “Voice. America”, as well as “Radio Liberty” and its regional projects. This year, 85 media outlets, journalists and human rights defenders were added to the register of “foreign agents”.
Sands regularly remindsthat the status of a “foreign agent” does not prohibit work and does not interfere with the activities of a journalist or publication.