Russian bill on extrajudicial closure of media outlets for publishing fake reports to envisage 'right to a mistake'

MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax) - A Russian bill on extrajudicial closure of media outlets for publishing fake reports has been amended for its second reading: the revocation of media licenses will not be immediate, and media outlets will have "a right to a mistake," First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Information Policy Committee Sergei Boyarsky said.

"The initial edition prescribed the actual closure of media outlets as soon as they lost their license, while the new edition says that, after the first violation is committed, the prosecutor general or its deputy will file a motion with Roskomnadzor to suspend operations of a media outlet for no more than three months, while the suspension will not exceed six months in the case of a repeat offense," Boyarsky said at a Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Under the amendments, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) will make a respective entry in the register within 24 hours. The original bill required "immediate" action.

Media outlets that remove their violations within three or six months may resume operations at the decision of Roskomnadzor, Boyarsky said.

Repeat violations may lead to the invalidation of a media outlet's registration, he added.

"I think we have really managed to upgrade this important, high-profile bill by its second reading so that it does not turn into a mechanism of possible infringement on the rights of domestic media outlets," Chairman of the State Duma Information Policy Committee Alexander Khinshtein said after the Committee unanimously approved the amendments.

The bill that allows the Prosecutor General's Office to revoke the registration of a media outlet or to initiate a ban on access to Internet resources disseminating fake information, discrediting the Russian Armed Forces and calling for sanctions passed the first reading on May 24.

The authors of the bill are members of the State Duma commission on the countering of foreign interference in Russian affairs led by commission head, State Duma Security Committee Chairman Vasily Piskaryov.