Supreme Arbitration Court legalizes censorship in Russia
The Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation by its Decision of December 19, 2007 sanctioned applying methods of blunt censorship against REGNUM News Agency (Mass media registration certificates El #77-6430 of August 6, 2002, IA #FS77-23686 of March 22, 2006) and thus established a precedent of coercive seizure of materials from media archives. By refusing to meet the application of Regnum Ltd. for revising the ruling of the Moscow District Federal Arbitration Court of October 10, 2007, in the exercise of supervisory powers, the Supreme Arbitration Court thus legalized the ruling that contradicts to the Russian Constitution, the spirit of the law, the logic of the whole long court examination between Regnum Ltd. and Ramensky Milk Processing Factory OJSC (during the trial, the plaintiff changed its name for Wimm Bill Dann Napitki (Beverages) OJSC).
Hereby, REGNUM News Agency states: correctness of our position has been fixed by three court instances; the trial has been lasting for more than three years; however, as a result, the Supreme Arbitration Court issued its decision on the case without even considering its details and the story of the issue. We are sure that our position on the issue is flawless, as REGNUM News Agency was fulfilling its duty to inform the public, broadcast news and statements including those from official agencies. The point at issue with Ramensky Milk Processing Factory was publication of a statement released by an official agency – the Department of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Well-Being. The court presented no legal position about the official source of information (the Department of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Well-Being), sanctioned no actions to seize the information from archives of other media (including print press) , but made exclusively and selectively against REGNUM News Agency that disseminated information of an official source. All this shows that we are dealing with practical censorship.
Being loyal to the constitutional principles of freedom of speech and rules of information professionalism and ethics, we express confidence that the ways applied in settling the issue assign legal force to methods of censorship exercised in the form of seizing published materials from inviolable media archives. REGNUM News Agency intends to defend its position to the end, particularly, at the European Court of Human Rights.
23:10 12/27/2007
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