Moscow, 3 May: The Russian Public Chamber is against amendments to the law on the mass media which will toughen responsibility for unreliable information.

"In fact, this will be an out-of-court method to deprive a media outlet of the right to disseminate information," member of the Public Chamber lawyer Pavel Astakhov told Interfax.

He pointed out that "it is journalists who have an exclusive right in the modern world to be a conductor between the state and society, and fulfil the constitutional mission to disseminate available information on current affairs."

"Without legal guarantees for the right, the freedom of speech turns into an empty declaration," the lawyer believes. (passage omitted)

In mid-May, the Public Chamber is planning to send its conclusions about the media law amendments, which expand reasons to close down media outlets on a court's decision, to the Duma. A special working group has been set up to prepare conclusions. The group is headed by chairman of the Public Chamber for the media and freedom of speech and Moskovskiy Komsomolets editor-in-chief Pavel Gusev. In addition, the group includes TV journalist Nikolay Svanidze, author of the existing law on the media and secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists Mikhail Fedotov, poet Andrey Dementyev, Komsomolskaya Pravda editor-in-chief Vladimir Sungorkin, human rights activist Aleksandr Brod and lawyer Pavel Astakhov.