Freedom of Expression and Regulation of Extremism in Russia in the Context of the Council of Europe Standards

P. 101–115.

Sherstoboeva E., Pavlenko V.

This study examines the development of Russian anti-extremist legislation with the purpose to identify the extent to which it correlates with the legal standards of the Council of Europe (CoE) on the right to freedom of expression. Apart from Russian national legislation, the article also considers judicial visions of extremism – for the first time in the field. The analysis goes beyond the issue of compliance and non-compliance and shows the fundamental differences of Russian and CoE legal visions of the issue. It is suggested that the differences have considerably increased over the last few years which is mainly explained by the shift of priorities of the Russian political establishment, rather than by pressing social needs. It is concluded that the Russian concept of extremism has the worrying potential for further expansion both in Russia and beyond it, including in what we call “alternative” international law.

Keywords: terrorism, separatism, freedom of expression, extremism, European Court of Human Rights, censorship, European court, hate speech, combating terrorism, Internet censorship, European Convention on human rights, countering terrorism, Russian media freedom, freedom of expression in Russia, The Council of Europe, the European Convention, Art 10 of the European Convention on human rights, Media Freedom in Russia, International standards on freedom of expression, defamation

Publication based on the results of: Media and sociocultural changes: a critical analysis of transformative effects of mediatization (2018)

In book

Internet Science. INSCI 2018

Vol. 11193. , Springer, 2018.