Russia bans media from publishing materials about special services without their permission
The Russian parliament, the State Duma, approved in the third reading amendments to the law on the Federal Security Service (FSB), prohibiting the publication and distribution of materials about the FSB without the permission of the agency's leadership, reports Novoye Vremya news outlet.
The law outlines the measures for the observance of professional confidentiality by military personnel, federal civil servants, current and former employees of the FSB.
According to the law, protected professional data is information that "does not constitute state and other legally protected secrets", but its disclosure or dissemination, according to the authors of the amendments, "may pose a threat" to the security of the FSB or "damage their reputation."
The State Duma report says that, before the publication, materials that may contain such “professional secrets”, should undergo an "expert assessment" in the FSB. Without this procedure, the distribution of these materials is no longer allowed. The list of information and the manner in which such an assessment is made will be approved by the FSB’s management.
The author of the amendments, the head of the Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Vasily Piskarev believes that changes in the law are necessary to ensure the security of the publishers and protect FSB confidential information.