The human rights project “OVD-Info” created plugin for the Google Chrome browser, which hides the labeling of media “foreign agents”. The publications included in the list of “foreign agents” are forced to add such marking to each publication at the request of Roskomnadzor. The text of the label is written in uppercase and begins with the words: “This message was created and disseminated by the media performing the functions of a foreign agent.”
“We are very tired of reading THIS MESSAGE every time. We think you do too. And we came up with a solution – a plugin for Google Chrome that changes the labeling on media sites to advertise those organizations that have signed petition for repealing the law on foreign agents. Let’s define our reality ourselves and support those who oppose this discriminatory law ”, – it says in the message “OVD-Info”.
At the moment in registry More than 100 individuals and legal entities are listed as foreign media agents. Journalists, human rights activists, environmentalists, doctors and charitable foundations are demanding the repeal of the law on “foreign agents”. According to them, it destroys the institutions of civil society. “The legislation on“ foreign agents ”is openly discriminatory and illegal: it contradicts the Russian Constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” the petition for repealing the law says.
Many organizations were forced to close down and be liquidated. The rest are under constant risk of audits and forced liquidation. The rules are constantly being tightened and formulated in such a way that it is impossible in principle to fully comply with them. Foreign agents are constantly under threat of criminal prosecution – from multimillion-dollar fines to imprisonment up to 5 years.