Support The Moscow Times!

Internet Giant Yandex Evades Burden of Media Status

Yandex will not have to register with the government as a media outlet. Sergei Porter / Vedomosti

Leading Russian search engine Yandex will not have to register with the government as a media outlet, the Prosecutor General's Office said Wednesday, setting a precedent that suggests search engines' news aggregating sites may be safe from a wave of heightened regulation of the Internet.

"Based on the results of our inspection, no violation of current legislation on media has been found in the company," the agency's news service said, RIA Novosti reported.

A deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party, Andrei Lugovoi, had asked prosecutors in mid-May to investigate whether the Yandex.Novosti news aggregator had violated laws governing media.

"There is no difference between the? news at? the top of? Yandex and? news that is circulated, for? instance, in? a newspaper," Luguvoi said at the time.

Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard turned politician, has his own issues with prosecutors: The State Duma deputy is wanted in Britain for the killing of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

The prosecutor's announcement is good news for search engines, some of whom had said they would stop posting news on? their websites if they were forced to register and subjected to the same laws as media outlets.

Their apprehensions were not without precedent. In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a? law requiring websites that attract more than 3,000 daily visits — including bloggers — to? register as? media outlets with the? Federal Mass Media Inspection Service and follow the rules governing what media can, and cannot, publish online.

The question of Yandex's status was very publicly posed in April, when a blogger asked Putin to define the search engine's legal responsibilities during a media forum.

"Every day several tens of millions of people see Yandex's top five news reports. … Despite this, Yandex does not have a media license and carries no legal responsibility as a media source," the blogger said.

"It is complicated," Putin said at the time, adding that the government and presidential administration were "considering the issue of what counts as mass media and what does not."

See also:

Yandex Launches Russian Rival of Foursquare Mobile App

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview
Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy

A Message from The Moscow Times:

Dear readers,

We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."

These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.

By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.

Once
Monthly
Annual
Continue
paiment methods
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.

Read more