At trial, witnesses report on apolitical nature of MRDC publications

The Leninsky District Court of Voronezh, which considers the complaint filed by the Media Rights Defence Centre (MRDC) about its inclusion in the register of "foreign agents", has questioned two witnesses in the case. Both of them have reported the absence of any political component in the materials published by Galina Arapova, Director of the MRDC.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the MRDC have also filed an appeal about the act of the inspection carried out by the Voronezh Regional Department of the Ministry Justice (MoJ), under which inspectors have found that the non-commercial organization is engaged in political activities. Besides, the appeal was also filed about the MoJ's resolution to include the MRDC in the register of "foreign agents". The appeal is being considered at the Leninsky District Court of Voronezh.

On November 17, the Court questioned Evgenia Topilskaya, an expert in the field of linguistics, who carried out the scientific and linguistic analysis of the publications of the MRDC to reveal attempts to use them to influence public opinion and to detect any appeals in the publications.

Evgenia Topilskaya has noted that "she does not see any political activities of the MRDC." She has explained that "Galina Arapova was interviewed as an expert in the field of media law, since in her interview, she used special legal terms rather than social and political terms."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.