Mass Media Law Interpreted

Russia’s Supreme Court, Plenum, adopted (after a second reading) legally binding rules that instruct lower courts on how to interpret current mass media legislation. In particular, the much disputed issue of whether a mass media company is responsible for readers’ comments posted on its website was resolved. The Court ruled that a “mass medium” (newspaper, etc.) is obliged to delete or edit a questionable comment only after receiving a request to do so from the pertinent state supervision agency, Roskomnadzor. (Roskomnadzor insisted that the medium must edit readers’ comments by itself or face liability.)

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1387108&ThemesID=568