If you look at the pass of one of the journalists, you can find an inscription on it, which is an extract from the Criminal Code. Article 144 states that it is prohibited to impede the activities of this specialist. The person who takes such action may be prosecuted. However, not even every journalist knows what these actions can be. For what crime can a person be held accountable under Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation?
Right to receive information
According to the Constitution, everyone has the right to seek, and receive, and transmit information. But only if he commits it legally. If this person is also a professional reporter, he is entitled to receive information of a sufficiently wide range, without having special permission for such actions. The rights of journalists are spelled out in the Federal Law.
Closed information
Undoubtedly, there are resources that no one is allowed to invade, with the exception of a limited circle of people. First of all, state secret is not subject to disclosure. Also, information regarding the personal life of a person should not be disseminated. Information that is directly related to society can be collected and shared with a wide range of people.
Censorship is banned in our country. Therefore, any media representative has the right to receive and disseminate information if these actions serve the good of society and do not violate the private lives of individual citizens. And if a journalist possesses certain information that is neither a state nor a personal secret, coercion to conceal it is punishable by law. 144 article is devoted to just such a crime. The perpetrator can be punished with a small fine of up to six years in prison.
Arbitrage practice
If a periodical employee intrudes into a citizen’s personal life and disseminates information that is part of his personal and intimate life, he carries out illegal actions. To prevent this activity is possible and necessary. But if the information received by the journalist suggests that the citizen carried out actions directed against the society (for example, the provision of services that do not meet the safety rules), it is prohibited by the Criminal Code to prevent the publication employee from publishing the relevant materials. In the first case, the accused is a journalist (although the accusation is based on a completely different article of the Criminal Code), in the second case, a person who impedes journalistic investigation.
Freedom of thought
The constitution also guarantees the right of citizens to receive objective information. Any form of influence on journalistic activities is punishable by law, which threatens the accused with criminal liability.
Such actions can be not only coercion to conceal one or another information, but also their distortion or replacement by others. Section 144 provides for punishment for any interference with the work of the press. But if a journalist is forced to hide or substitute information by a person with weighted official powers, the term of imprisonment or a monetary fine will be more substantial. Thus, article 144, part 2, speaks of a fine of up to three hundred thousand rubles, or imprisonment of up to two years.
Forms of infringement of freedom
The way in which freedom of thought and speech can be limited is said in the Federal Law ("On the Media"). This may be direct or indirect interference with the professional life of a journalist, or illegal termination of the media. The legal liability for an infringement on the free activity of the press is established by 144 articles. Administrative law provides for the specification of these provisions.
It should be said that the ban on censorship has a negative impact on society. In the media a few years ago, much more often than today, there were materials of a pornographic or extremist nature. But the dissemination of such information through amendments to the Criminal Code is also criminally punishable. This is the specificity of the crime, which is discussed in this article. A journalist cannot be obstructed, but only if he acts legally.
A bit of history
In 1997, the European seminar, which was dedicated to strengthening the independence of the media, discussed the urgent need for criminal penalties for interfering in journalistic activities. The relevance of the topic was due to the fact that members of the press often became victims of violence, torture, threats and abduction. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that information is one of the fundamental human rights.
In Russia, in the late nineties of the last century and the first decade of this, significant difficulties were observed in the relationship between the media and government. At the same time, journalists were often exposed not only to economic pressure. Entire circulations of newspapers were arrested, and the broadcast was cut off. And quite a part of these actions were carried out demonstratively, for which the power structures were involved. The person initiating such activities is held accountable today, as provided for in article 144.
The Criminal Code of the RSFSR, however, ignored such actions. In the Soviet Union, no periodical and a single television program could circumvent censorship.
Today, the owner of any organization has no right to impede the activities of journalists, no matter what negative consequences it would entail for his business. Government agencies also have to put up with the invasion of reporters. However, as already mentioned, there is information that is inaccessible even to the most famous and long-running edition.
Object of crime
Every crime has a victim. In legal language, it is called an object. Intervention in journalistic activities is punishable by law, as described in article 144. What does this crime mean and who suffers from it? The object in this case is how professional activity journalist, and the freedom to receive the information referred to in the Constitution.
The role of the victim in a court case, the initiation of which is indicated in Article 144 of the Criminal Code, is played by the legal representative of the press. This specialist has the right to access various resources and is not required to justify the need for information. If journalist is physically abused or damage to property, then these actions can be qualified not only as a crime, which is provided for in Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In a court case, the totality of the acts referred to in Art. 111, Art. 112, Art. 119.
