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Chapter 1. General Provisions
Article 1. Freedom of Mass Communication
In the Russian Federation, the retrieval, receipt, production and dissemination of mass communication, the foundation of mass media, the possession, use and disposal of these media, the manufacture, acquisition, storage and use of technical facilities and equipment, raw and auxiliary materials designed for the production and spread of products of mass information media; shall not be liale to restrictions, with the exception of those prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation on mass media.
Article 2. Mass Media. Basic Concepts
For purposes of the present Law:
mass communication shall be understood to mean printed, audio and audio-visual and other messages and materials intended for an unlimited range of persons;
mass media shall be understood to mean a periodical printed publication, a radio, television or video programme, a newsreel programme, and any other form of periodical dissemination of mass information;
the periodical printed publication shall be understood to mean a newspaper, magazine or journal, almanac, bulletin, any other publication with a constant name, current issue and coming out at least once in a year;
mass media products shall be understood to mean the total print or part of the total print of the separate issue of a periodical printed publication, a separate issue of a radio, TV or newsreel programme, the total print or part or part of the total print and audio or video recording programme;
the dissemination of mass media products shall be understood to mean the sale (subscription, delivery or distribution) of periodical printed publications, audio and video recording programmes, broadcasting of radio and TV programmes, demonstration of newsreel programmes;
specialized mass media shall be understood to mean such mass media for the registration or dissemination of whose products the present Law provides for special rules;
mass media editor's office shall be understood to mean an organization, institution, enterprise or a private citizen and association of private citizens, which produce and issue mass media;
the editor -in -chief shall be understood to mean a person heading the editorial staff (regardless of the name of the post) and taking final decisions on the production and issue of mass media;
the journalist shall be understood to mean a person who edits, creates, collects or prepares messages and materials for the editor's office of a mass medium and is connected with it with labor and other contractual relations or engaged in such activity, being authorized by it;
the publisher shall be understood to mean a publishing house or any other enterprise (entrepreneur) who is responsible for material and technical supplies of the production of mass medium products and also a legal entity or a private citizen who is equated with the publisher and for whom this activity is not the key one or does not serve as the main source of income;
the distributor shall be understood to mean a person who disseminates mass medium products under the agreement with the editor's office and publisher or on any other legal grounds.
Article 3. Inadmissibility of Censorship
No provision shall be made for the censorship of mass information, that is, the demand made by officials, state organs, organization, institutions or public associations that the editor's office of a mass medium shall get in advance agreement on a message and materials (except for the cases when the official is an auditor or interviewee) and also for the suppression of the dissemination of messages and materials and separate parts thereof.
No provision shall be made for the creation and financing of organizations, institutions, organs or offices whose functions include the censorship of mass information.
Article 4 of the present Law was changed by Federal Law No. 114-FZ of July 19, 1995
See the previous text of the Article
Article 4. Inadmissibility of Misuse of the Freedom of Mass Communication
No provision shall be made for the use of mass media for purposes of committing criminally indictable deeds, divulging information making up a state secret or any other law-protective secret, calling for the seizure of power, violently changing the constitutional system and the state integrity, fanning national, class, social and religious intolerance or strife, propagating war and also for the spreading of broadcasts propagandizing pornography or the cult of violence and cruelty.
It shall be prohibited to use - in the television, video and cinema programmes or in documentary and feature films, and also in information computer files and in the programmes of the processing of information texts belonging to special mass information media - concealed in - sets influencing the subconscious of human beings and/or affecting their health.
Article 5. Legislation on Mass Media
The legislation of the Russian Federation on Mass Media consists of the present Law and other legislative acts promulgated in accordance with it, and also of legislative acts on mass media adopted by the Republics within the Russian Federation.
If an inter-state agreement concluded by the Russian Federation provides for the organization and functioning of mass media the rules different from those established by the present Law, the rules of the inter-state agreement shall be applicable.
Article 6. The Application of the Law
The present Law shall be applicable to mass media founded in the Russian Federation and to those set up beyond its borders only in respect of the dissemination of their products in the Russian Federation.
Legal entities and citizens of other States and stateless persons shall enjoy the rights and bear the duties envisaged by the present Law on a par with the organizations and citizens of the Russian Federation, unless otherwise stipulated by law.
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