The Union of Journalists stood up for the Bashkir edition, which was mercilessly fined by the court

Let us recall that in the summer, the UfaTime edition published a video in which parents beat the child in front of passers-by. After the release of the material, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation became interested in the incident. And Roskomnadzor demanded the permission of the parents from the journalists to publish the video. At the same time, it was impossible to identify on the footage what kind of boy it was. Nevertheless, the court fined the editorial office a total of 460 thousand rubles.

The UJR considers the amount of the fine to be incomparable with the identified administrative violation. “Despite the fact that in the published video, the journalists did not take all the measures to hide the identification of the minor, they acted in the public interest in order to protect the child. The material caused a resonance and became the reason for the intervention of the prosecutor's office in the situation with the inappropriate behavior of the parents”, - the Union said in a statement.

They also believe that this case can be regarded "as an instrument of economic pressure on the publication".

By the way, UfaTime has already announced a collection of donations to pay off the fine, which the editorial board considers "senile". According to journalists, the half-million penalty will bankrupt an independent media outlet that exists only on advertising. During the pandemic, incomes dropped to a minimum that barely allows the team to remain.

“If the trial in the highest instances ends in our favor, we will donate all the funds raised to a charity fund for the treatment of seriously ill children”, - promises the editorial office of UfaTime.