The problem of media independence is acute in Russia, claim participants of the festival "Radio together"

During the festival of radio broadcasters "Radio together" held in Moscow on June 26-28, a round table was arranged on the topic "Review of changes in legislation on media", where Michail Fedotov, member of the council under the RF President on facilitating the development of civil institutions and human rights, one of the drafters of the law on mass media, spoke about the drawbacks of the existing law.

In particular, the expert considers that the journalist should not be held responsible for what a person tells him during live broadcasting. In his opinion, the problem of media, as well as court, independence is acute in Russia.

Fedotov has noted that the law "On Media" contains serious drawbacks. For instance, the law on combating extremism allows any media outlet to be closed without any clear grounds, only due to a "threat of inflicting such damage" to anyone.

There are few mass media outlets which are independent from the state, grimly stated the speakers at the round table. Virtually all depend on the authorities either through shares or through mutually advantageous relations between the outlet owner and the authorities.

He thinks that the country needs to adopt a law guaranteeing economic independence of mass media and to make public the information on who is the owner of the media.

The expert also thinks that people should not be put to prison for the words written or said in mass media, while the article on slander and insult should be transferred from the criminal to the civil law.