His Excellency Vladimir Putin

President of Russia

Moscow, Russia

26 July 2012

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN- IFRA) and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries, to express our serious concern at the approval by the lower-house of the Duma of legislation that would recriminalise libel.

According to reports, on 13 July after a third and final reading, the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, adopted a new law criminalising certain types of libel. Only seven months ago, legislation initiated by your predecessor President Dmitry Medvedev ensured that libel would be treated as an administrative offence.

Unlike the previous criminal libel law, the new law does not provide prison terms for violations. However, it provides harsh financial penalties. Libellous public statements or remarks reproduced by media outlets will be punished by a fine of up to 2 million rubles (about US$61,000). More serious infringements carry a penalty of a fine of up to 5 million rubles. There is also a special article “on libel against judges, jurors, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials,” punishable by a fine of up to 2 million rubles.

We are seriously concerned that the re-introduction of criminal libel is yet another serious blow to freedom of expression in your country. Rather than seeking to develop mechanisms of self- regulation and civil legislation, the new law represents a retrogressive step that contradicts international standards of freedom of expression and your country’s human rights obligations.

We respectfully request you to reject the bill and urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Jacob Mathew

President

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

Erik Bjerager

President

World Editors Forum

WAN-IFRA is the global organization for the world’s newspapers and news publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.