All news

Search at Russian media conglomerate triggered by rights activist complaint

LifeNews made public some personal details revealing the identity of a minor in its televised child abuse video report

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigations Committee said on Tuesday the search at the LifeNews office was triggered by a complaint from a human rights activist.

"The Moscow department of the Russian Investigations Committee is conducting a pre-investigation check into the complaint of a representative of a Moscow-based human rights group. Today, by court ruling, investigators confiscated video materials at the LifeNews TV office. LiefNews staff gave these materials to the investigators voluntarily," Yulia Ivanova, a spokesperson for the Moscow department of the Russian Investigations Committee, said adding that a procedural decision would follow.

Olga Kostina, the leader of the human rights group Soprotivleniye (Resistance) said earlier she had informed the Investigations Committee that in its televised child abuse video report, LifeNews made public some personal details revealing the identity of the minor. "At the end of last year, we received a complaint saying that in a video report about child abuse, LifeNews published personal information," she said, adding that "such disclosure is prohibited by law."

LifeNews confirmed that the search had been triggered by Soprotivleniye’s request with the Investigations Committee over the publication of information about two crimes against minors.

"Most likely, this was the case linked with sex scandals at schools LifeNews journalists investigated," Aram Gabrelyanov, the holding’s CEO, said.