The legality of the governmental control of Russian media and its effect on media business

Abstract

This paper is intended to provide an analytical understanding of how the state policy and legislation in Russia influences the media business. The importance of the research is determined by the actuality of the problem due to its influence on the societal well-being in Russia and the need to evaluate the prospects for the future development of the industry.

The work is divided into three parts: (1) The analysis of the statutory law that regulates the main activities of the media outlet; (2) The analysis of the media landscape in Russia and determining the scope of the governmental interference; (3) The analysis of the main problems in the media industry in Russia that were identified.

The paper notes and concludes that the legislative restrictions, which are commonly justified with the necessity of the social or national security, do not necessarily imply the distortion of the functioning of Russian media, although the restrictive trends in the recently accepted legislation are increasing the limitations and threats to the media activities. The governmental interference in the media business is represented in the selective application of laws, threats of criminal prosecution both on organizational and personal level, that is used to exert pressure over media outlets has led to the situation of the eventual financial control of the major media by the state, state-related companies or the personas with close ties to the administration.

The overall conclusion is that the problems that threaten the development of the media industry are aggravated by the state intention to gain complete control over the information sphere. The market share controlled by the state combined with trends in legislation and realities of the law enforcement in Russia lead to overall decline of mass media as a business and consequently affect the society as a whole.