The Yabloko faction submitted to the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg a draft statement on the protection of the rights of citizens to freedom of information in the conditions of a “special operation”
Press Release, 5.05.2022
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky, MPs of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, submitted to the St. Petersburg parliament a draft statement on the protection of citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of information.
Yabloko proposes that the Legislative Assembly should express protest against the restriction of freedom of information and demand immediate abolition of the legislative restrictions for citizens adopted after the start of the “special military operation” to disseminate any information about the events, except for official information, and freely express their opinion under the threat of administrative or criminal punishment.
“New restrictions on freedom of information deprive people of the opportunity to find out the truth about what is happening in the world around them, create a threat of degradation and degeneration of society,” Alexander Shishlov stressed.
The draft statement runs that introduction of legislative restrictions has already resulted in thousands of administrative and dozens of criminal cases. In St. Petersburg, citizens are detained and prosecuted for the slogan “No to War”, with the wording in the protocol of offense “holding a poster “No to war”, thereby expressing his/her opinion and shaping the opinion of others on the participation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the war, and not in a special operation”.
“This looks monstrous for our country, where public calls for unleashing an aggressive war are criminalised, where several generations grew up under the slogan “if only there were no war,” the draft resolution runs.
The draft statement of Yabloko must be discussed by the commission on law and order of the Legislative Assembly, and then submitted to the consideration of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, but deputies have the right to put it on the agenda by vote.
Earlier, Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky had sent an appeal to Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and deputies of the State Duma calling for the repeal of laws imposing penalties for anti-war protests.
Posted: May 6th, 2022 under Foreign policy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Russia-Ukraine relations, YABLOKO's faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Yabloko's Regional Branches.