Official Warning for Russian Website Publishing Court Verdicts

July 5, 2016

Russian media watchdog Roscomnadzor has issued an official warning to the Judicial Decisions news website for reposting court verdicts from government websites, the RBC news website reported Monday.

Roscomnadzor claims that Judicial Decisions violated Russian data protection law by publishing four verdicts where the plaintiffs and defendants could be identified.

Judicial Decisions' editor-in-chief Pavel Netupskiy told RBC that the website collects and publishes the courts’ decisions automatically.

The media watchdog has previously sent about a hundred letters of an “unclear legal status” demanding Judicial Decisions to remove certain information from its website, Netupskyi said.

The site is to appeal the warning.

“It is not the first threat we've had from Roscomnadzor. Officials have sent us illegal demands protecting interests of criminals and frauds,” a statement on the Judicial Decisions website read.

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