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Voice of America, Radio Liberty ignore Russian laws — watchdog

According to Roskomnadzor, the Voice of America has not established a Russian legal entity, and Radio Liberty systematically ignores the requirement for properly marking its content

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. The radio stations Voice of America and Radio Liberty (recognized as foreign agents in Russia — TASS) challengingly refuse to observe Russian legislation, the telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor said in its official Telegram channel.

"The Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty challengingly refuse to comply with the law [on mass media recognized as foreign agents] to the full extent. In particular, the Voice of America has not established a Russian legal entity, and Radio Liberty systematically ignores the requirement for properly marking its content," the watchdog’s statement runs.

Roskomnadzor stressed that Russia’s legislation towards mass media rated as foreign agents was far more tolerant than US laws.

"Apart from registration by the Ministry of Justice and presentation of financial accounting, the organizations are obliged to mark their content and provide information about all aspects of their activity, including a detailed description of contacts with the authorities… In the Russian law on mass media listed as foreign agents political activity and other terms are described in detail, which rules out dubious interpretations, while the obligations of such organizations are confined to the registration of a Russian legal entity and to marking their content," the statement says.

As of June 11, there are 20 mass media on the foreign agents list, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (and its regional Russian language services). Fines for the violation of the law on foreign mass media registered as foreign agents were introduced under the federal law of December 16, 2019. The fine for legal entities is 6 million rubles ($83,749).