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THE RIGHT TO KNOW

THE RIGHT TO KNOW. AND RUJ’S ACTIVITY. by Prof., Dr. Mikhail Fedotov, Executive Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ). RUJ’S PROJECTS. The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations The Grand Jury of RUJ

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THE RIGHT TO KNOW

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  1. THE RIGHT TO KNOW AND RUJ’S ACTIVITY by Prof., Dr. Mikhail Fedotov,Executive Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ)

  2. RUJ’S PROJECTS • The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations • The Grand Jury of RUJ • The Foundation for Public Broadcasting’s Promotion to the Russian Federation • The Center for Legal Protection

  3. THE CENTER FOR JOURNALISM IN EXTREME SITUATIONS • Monitoring violations of journalists' and media rights; • Investigating especially grave forms of violations of journalists' rights: murder, attempted murder, beatings, threats etc, and creating journalistic investigation groups; • Researching the conditions and legal status of journalistic work in "hot spots"; • Preparing and publishing handbooks and specialized literature; • Offering legal assistance; • Studying legislation related to mass media and offering recommendations; • Conducting training seminars for journalists working under extreme conditions.

  4. THE GRAND JURY • The Grand Jury is a self-regulation body considering ethical conflicts according to journalists activities including violations of professional rules and ethics. • The Grand Jury has a right to getting official interpretations of the principals and rules of RUJ’s Code of ethics. • The Grand Jury codifies precedents as well as evaluates special cases . • The right to bring their case to the Grand Jury belongs to a legal and natural persons which are interested in moral, ethical and professional evaluations of journalists, editors, distributors and owners of Mass Media outlets, representatives of government organizations or other officials, having competence over the Mass Media. • People, recognizing the professional and ethical jurisdiction of the Grand Jury are under its protection. • Decisions of the Grand Jury, are mandatory for execution by bodies, divisions, and members of the RUJ for implementation.

  5. LEGAL CASES OF DEFAMATION BY THE MEDIA(information by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation)

  6. LEGAL CASES OF DEFAMATION BY THE MEDIA

  7. THE RUJ’S ATTEMPTS TO CREATE PUBLIC TV Transforming Federal State TV into Public TV Founding Public TV on level zero in Russian regions

  8. FEDERAL AUTHORITIES’ ATTEMPTS TO CREATE PUBLIC TV Presidential decree No 377 of March 20, 1993 ordering the creation of Patronage Councils for the State TV and Radio Companies Not created On March 28, 1993 the IX Congress of People’s Deputies ordered the creation of Federal Supervision Council for preservation of freedom of speech on State Broadcasting Liquidated Act of the State Duma No 639 of October 4, 1996 on the transformation of joint-stock company “ORT” into a state television company Not realized Presidential Decree No 452 of October 31, 1997 on the creation of a Patronage Council for the TV channel “Culture” Doesn’t work Rejected The 1998 Draft Law “On the State conducting of RTR” was adopted on the first hearing The 1998 Status of RTR afforded the opportunity to create a deliberative council under the chairman of RTR, which would include eminent persons of science, culture and art Abolished

  9. USING THE PUBLIC BROADCASTING BRAND FOR NON-PUBLIC BROADCASTING PURPOSES The 1995 Presidential Decree on establishing the joint-stock company ORT (“Public Russian Television”), where 51% of shares were owned by the State and 49% were controlled by Boris Berezovsky Moscow Government-controlled Company “Radio Center” created the radio channel “Public Russian Radio” for transmission to different regions of the RF

  10. SOCIETY’S ATTEMPTS TO CREATE PUBLIC TV In 2000, the Public Council of the TV Company NTV, with Mikhail Gorbachev as a Chairman, was created liquidated In 2002 the Public Council on the TV company TVS was created liquidated In 2002 the RUJ deliberated the draft of the Federal Public Broadcasting Law In 2004 the RUJ deliberated the draft of the Public Broadcasting Law for the Moscow Area In 2004 the Glasnost Defense Foundation deliberated the draft law on Public Broadcasting for Novosibirsk Region

  11. THE DRAFT OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC BROADCASTING LAW The draft of the Public Broadcasting Law, created under the auspices of the Russian Union of Journalists, was submitted to the State Duma by the SPS and Yabloko parties in June 2002 The draft was sent back by the Council of the State Duma in March 2003 to reach the Official Opinion of the Government of the Russian Federation. The draft was submitted for the second time in October 2003

  12. Proposed structure of the RUSSIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTING The Federation Council The President of the Russian Federation The State Duma Suggests candidature of Director General of RPB Appoints to the post Appoints its representative Forms the Patronage Council Federal Government Appoints his representative Director General of RPB Appoints its representative Leads the Board of Directors Appoints its representative Suggest candidates to the Patronage Council Patronage Council of the RPB Leads the Executive Council Control under realization of public service functions Board of Directors of the RPB Forms the Executive Council Appoint part of the Board of Directors Political parties, religions, trade unions, NGO’s Executive Council Journalist’s collectives of the RPB

  13. Proposed mechanism of financing for the RUSSIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTING “RUSSIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTING” Royalties, License Fees Allocation of Federal Budget Grants Donations Sponsorship Service fees Individual donations Corporate donations Individual fees Corporate fees Other sources

  14. RUJ’S ACTIVITY FOR PROTECTION OF THE MEDIA LAW 1991 • Fight against harmful amendments into Media Law of 1991 • Fight against the Authorities’ drafts of new Media Law • Preparing the alternative draft of new Media Law

  15. LEGAL REASONS FOR CLOSING THE MEDIA (corrections of the Media Law 1991) 1991 - Using the Media to violate the Criminal Code. 1995 - Using the Media for the “propaganda of pornography, violence and cruelty”. 2000 – Using the Media to“disseminate information about the means for creation, production and use, as well as places of acquiring, drugs” . 2000 – Using the Media to “disseminate the information, which dissemination is forbidden by federal laws”. 2002 – Using the Media “for extremist activity”. 2003 – Duplicate abuse of the electoral laws in the framework of the same electoral campaign.

  16. Simplification of the procedures for the state’s closing of a Media outlet - 1991 - 2004 Media outlet may be closed only by court: 1991 – on the civil suit by the Ministry of the Press after two or more official warnings due 12 months. 2002 – EXTRA - on the petition by the appropriate federal executive body or any prosecutor after one official warning about extremist activity or without preliminary warning, if this activity has done damage to the rights of citizens, to the environment, to public order or security, to legal interests of natural or legal persons, as well as has made a threat of the same damage. 2003 – EXTRA – The court may to hold up the Media outlet until the end of the electoral campaign on the petition by the appropriate federal executive body on the initiative of the Central or any regional electoral commissions.

  17. PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MEDIA LAW The draft of the new Media Law, created under the auspices of the Russian Union of Journalists, was submitted by the SPS and Yabloko parties to the State Duma in June 2002. Another draft, created under the auspices of “The Industrial Committee of Mass Media” (the NGO includes leaders of major state owned and state-controlled Media corporations) and Ministry of the Press, has been located at the Administration of the President of RFsince June 2003. (For analysis of the drafts see: Yuriy Baturin, Mikhail Fedotov, Vladimir Entin “Media Law – on the crossroad of ages and opinions”, published by Russian Union of Journalists with support by UNESCO. Moscow, 2004)

  18. TWO DRAFTS – TWO DESTINIES INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE’S DRAFT RUSSIAN UNION OF JOURNALISTS’ DRAFT Additional legal reasons for closure and temporary closure of the Media outlet Implementation of international standards of Media regulations Termination of editorial independence Strengthening of the guarantees of the editorial independence, transparence and pluralism Preservation of the state-owned Media, and other mistakes and shortcomings of the current Media Law Creation the ways for transforming the state owned Media to Public Media Creation of legal basis for public broadcasting Extension of the term of licenses for TV and Radio broadcasting to 10 years

  19. WEB-SITE: WWW.RUJ.RUE-MAIL: FEDOTOV@RUJ.RU

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