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Guide to the Global Leaders in Media Law Practice

REGIONS WE COVER

Middle East and North Africa

North America

Asia-Pacific

Western Europe

Central and Eastern Europe

In Russia, the media sector is regulated by the following:

the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 29.5);
the Federal Law on Mass Media No. 2124-1 dated 27 December 1991 (as amended) (Mass Media Law);
the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies, and Data Protection, No. 149 dated 27 July 2006 (as amended) (the Information Law); and
other specific laws (the Federal Law No. 38-FZ On Advertising of 13 March 2006 (as amended) (the Advertising Law), the Federal Law No. 152-FZ On Personal Data dated 27 July 2006 (as amended) (the Data Protection Law), the Federal Law No. 436-FZ On Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development of 29 December 2010 (as amended) (the Children Protection Law).

The principal state authority, which is competent to secure, control and monitor local mass media legal compliance is the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

There are other state authorities responsible for providing state services and management of state properties in the media sector, such as the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation.

Foreign ownership with regards to media services is seriously restricted. Foreign companies cannot hold more than a 20 per cent share in a local media company. Any 100 per cent equity forms of foreign participation or foreign corporate control over the Russian media business are prohibited.

In terms of specific regulated activities, the national media sector is subject to:

registration – for various media-products, including online editions (websites);
licensing – for distribution (broadcasting) of media;
permits – for distribution of foreign printed products (editions);
approvals on allocation of frequency bands – for broadcasting of media using the

RF- spectrum.

Important legal developments in the media industry include the adoption of the following laws and regulations concerning the below institutions, as well as aspects requiring the attention of media lawyers:

requirements for labeling materials with an indication of “foreign agents”; distribution of advertising on information resources of foreign agents, as well as advertising of such resources, is prohibited;
introduction of administrative liability for the promotion (propaganda) of the “childfree” philosophy;
in addition to the rules for labeling Internet advertising, a tax on Internet advertising (3% of income) is being introduced;
bloggers with more than 10,000 subscribers must register with Roskomnadzor. Failure to register may lead to blocking, affects the ability to place advertisements in the specified blogs, as well as reposting information from them;
criminalisation of certain personal data breaches and introduction of turnover fines for personal data leaks.

Media law is constantly developing in Russia and we continue monitoring the applicable legal amendments to assess consequences and their potential impact on the business.

Written by

Sergey Medvedev and Nikita Maltsev

Gorodissky & Partners