Judge Nadezhda Nikiforova of the Yakut City Court issued a warning to journalist Irina Kurilova under the protocol for participation in an “undesirable organization” (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences) due to a link to the material “Important Stories”. The court decision was discovered by Mediazona.
The reason for drawing up the protocol was a link to the text of “Important Stories” dated January 30, 2023 about the reduction in the number of small peoples in Russia, which Kurilova published on Facebook the day after the publication of the material. On April 17, the senior district police officer of police department No. 4 in Yakutsk found the link on her Facebook, and a report was drawn up against Kurilova. Now her page on the social network is unavailable.
Kurilova did not come to court. Her lawyer said at the hearing that the journalist is charged with participation in an organization that is not on the list of “undesirables” on the Ministry of Justice website: IStories fonds is included there, and IStories found is indicated in the resolution to initiate the case. The court found these allegations “unfounded” and considered that the incorrect name in the documents was “an obvious typo.”
The assistant prosecutor of Yakutsk asked Kurilova to be sentenced in the form of a warning rather than a fine.
In May 2023, Kurilova was already given a warning for the same reference to “Important Stories,” but under the protocol of “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). Then the journalist explained that she reposted the article “because it contained interesting statistical data on small peoples” and did not see in it “information discrediting the RF Armed Forces.” However, the court found that the publication indicated that the reduction in the number of small peoples in Russia is occurring “including due to their mobilization.”
The Ministry of Justice included “Important Stories” on the list of “undesirable organizations” in March 2022. Today “Mediazona” found out that the editor-in-chief of the publication, Roman Anin, was fined for his participation in the article. According to Center “E” employees, he “stored and distributed information materials” from “Important Stories.”
Fine for interviews. The first protocols for communication with “undesirable” media began to be received by the courts.