The Ministry of Finance has proposed expanding the list of media outlets (media) that may not report to Roskomnadzor on receiving money from abroad and foreign agents. To the existing list, the ministry proposed adding state-owned publications and television channels, as well as media receiving subsidies from the budget. The State Duma believes that the initiative does not contradict the “spirit of the law” on foreign agents.
Now the media that work in Russia with the permission of the Russian Foreign Ministry, as well as publications and television channels created within the framework of international treaties of Russia, have the right not to report to the RKN. The ministry in its amendments proposed to add to this list the media that receive subsidies from the budget, and those founded by the state.
As indicated on the RKN website, funding from foreign sources is received, for example, by ANO TV-Novosti, the manager of the RT channel and the TASS agency. Among the recipients of subsidies from the federal budget are NTV and Channel One.
RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan explained to Vedomosti that RT receives “foreign funding” from its own video agency Ruptly. “His materials are used by more than 1,700 media companies from hundreds of countries. By law, we were obliged to publish reports on all these receipts. And we comply with the laws in any country where we work, ”she said.
Today, media outlets receiving money from abroad can be recognized as a foreign agent. In this case, it will be included in the special register of the Ministry of Justice. Foreign media agents are required to provide detailed financial statements of all their income and expenses, data on the personnel of the management and audits. In addition, foreign agents must mark their status on every message and material on media sites and social networks.
But the State Duma does not believe that the proposal of the Ministry of Digital Science somehow contradicts the law on foreign agents. As the deputy chairman of the Duma committee on information policy, Oleg Matveychev, noted, the amounts that RT and TASS receive from the budget are known and are being discussed in parliament.
“Receiving any funds from abroad in these cases does not contradict the spirit of the law, the essence of which is that there are no media outlets that are subject to foreign influence through foreign funding,” he said.
Earlier “Secret” reported that “Yandex” began to independently label news from the media, recognized by foreign agents. Next to messages from publications that are included in the register of the Ministry of Justice, there is now a note “foreign agent”. The innovation affected at least the Dozhd TV channel (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) and the Mediazona publication (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia).
Photo: stockvault.net, CC0
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