The lower house of the Russian parliament adopted in the third and final reading the amendments to the law “On Mass Media” concerning the responsibility of journalists.

The amendments stipulate that the editorial board, editor-in-chief or journalist will have to be responsible for the publication of information recognized as false, defaming honor and dignity, infringing on the rights of citizens or threatening the health of children, if it comes to citing material from another media outlet, the editor-in-chief of which cannot be installed and held accountable for this violation.

Corresponding changes are being made to part 6 of article 57 of the law “On mass media”. In the current edition, journalists are responsible for citing information from the media, which cannot be established and held accountable for this violation.

As one of the authors of the bill, the first deputy head of the Duma committee on information policy, Sergei Boyarsky, explained to TASS , the changes are being made so that journalists do not refer to non-existent media. “If the editor-in-chief of another media cannot be identified, then this is not the media, but the inventions of those who want to create something and hide behind quotations,” he said.

(c)MEDUZA 2021