Audiovisual Regulation in Russia in the Context of Council of Europe Standards

This paper explores, mainly from a legal perspective, the extent to which Russian regulation of traditional TV and online audiovisual media policies has been consistent with Council of Europe (hereinafter CoE) standards. The study compares the CoE and Russian approaches to specific aspects of audiovisual regulation including licensing, media ownership, public service media, digitalization, and national production. The paper first studies the CoE perspective through examining its conventional provisions related to audiovisual media regulation, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as CoE non-binding documents. The study proceeds to consider Russian national law governing audiovisual media and the practice of Russian courts of general jurisdiction on broadcast licensing. The paper suggests that Russian audiovisual regulation is insufficiently compatible with CoE standards and mainly seeks to maintain excessive governmental control over the audiovisual sector in a digital environment.