Researching pressure on civic initiatives and protecting those included in the "foreign agents" list

legal help for foreign agents

Within the frame of the Inoteka project, we look into the practice of enforcing the foreign agency laws, talk about their influence on the civil society and certain people, launch discussions with experts in the corresponding fields and do our best to find the ways for potential changes. In December, we started providing legal help for those included into the foreign agents’ lists jointly with the Mass Media Defence Centre.

HELPING

In December of 2021, experts and lawyers of OVD-Info and Mass Media DefenceCentre united to launch the legal help programme for individuals that experienced any harm caused by the foreign agents’ law.

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researching and fighting

Who’s on the lists of foreign agents and undesirable organizations?

Data on organizations recognized as 'undesirable' in Russia, as well as on all those who have been included in the lists of 'foreign agents'

A New ‘Foreign Agents’ Law Comes Into Effect

OVD-Info’s lawyer Daria Korolenko analyzed the amendments and other changes

Created and (or) distributed. Discriminatory aspects of the application of legislation on ‘foreign agents’

Report on the forms of discrimination arising from the rapidly evolving 'foreign agents' legislation and on negative effects on society as a whole

ABOUT THE PROJECT

In 2021, the foreign agents’ lists have been expanded with 111 additions, 70 of which stand for individuals. 19 organizations were declared undesirable. The country’s oldest NGOs, International Memorial and “Memorial“ Human Rights Centre were liquidated per curiam for continuously violating the foreign agents’ law.

For now, the major part of the aforementioned lists is represented by independent media and human rights organizations. It is not that the list is limited to these two types though: it also includes environmental specialists, animal advocates, educational projects etc. The very fact of declaring people (especially journalists and activists) foreign agents is quite a recent but notable addition to our reality.

This practice of harassing autonomous and independent projects has been made up over the course of a whole decade. We believe it to be incredibly harmful to society in general as well as the interests of the state and its particular citizens. Moreover, the foreign agents' law has shifted towards being a great censorship tool also assisting political persecution.

Mass Media Defence Centre

Since 1996, the Mass Media Rights Advocacy Centre has been operating in the field of defending the rights of journalists and asserting freedom of speech. It renders legal assistance for anyone associated with mass media, bloggers and photographers looking for any help concerning their professional activity.

OVD-Info

OVD-Info is an independent media human rights project. It is aimed at the ultimate extinction of political persecution in Russia. At the moment, OVD-Info is focused on enforcing particular human rights (freedom of speech and freedom of assembly) and inspecting political persecution as well as abuse of the aforementioned rights taking place all over Russia.