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Russian Duma Adopts Bill to Limit Foreigners' Control of Mass Media
The Russian State Duma or lower house of parliament passed Thursday in its first reading a bill of limiting foreign interests in Russian mass media.
The bill was adopted by 332 votes for and 22 against with three abstentions.
Under the bill, foreigners, people without Russian citizenship, people holding dual citizenship or foreign legal entities can hold no more than 50 percent of the stake in Russian mass media.
The bill was drafted by a group of Duma deputies who are members of the Duma committee for information policy.
Alexander Chuyev from the Unity party faction, who was one of the drafters, said the bill is aimed to protect the rights of speech freedom of Russian citizens.
"We deem it impossible for foreign legal entities to purchase controlling packages of shares," Chuyev said, adding that this is something related to not only the citizens' rights of speech freedom, but also the interests of Russia's security and political stability.
"There have been cases where foreign legal entities and Russian legal entities with foreign interests held more than half of the capital in Russian mass media, so we initiated this legislative motion," he said.
At the same time, Chuyev stressed that foreign investment is necessary for the technical development of the Russian mass media.
When drafting the bill, the drafters said, they took into consideration the experience of other countries in the sphere. "Such restrictions exist in the United States, France, Poland, the Czech Republic and some other European countries," Chuyev said.
At the State Duma sessions discussing the bill, left-wing deputies complained that "legalization of foreign interests" in mass media will pave the way for "agents of Western influence" in Russia, while right-wing deputies said the Russian media should be protected not only from foreigners, but also from certain Russian private individuals and legal entities.
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