Legal Nature of Misuse of Mass Media Freedom

The paper is devoted to the legal regulation of mass media in the Russian Federation, especially to the fundamental principles of mass media activity, such as the freedom of mass media and prohibition of the abuse of mass media freedom. The theme is urgent because nowadays mass information is strictly regulated by the government. Therefore, analysis of court practice and practice of authorized bodies is an effective method to minimize risks of being prosecuted.There is an amount of works in national legal science that are referring to the theoretical issues of abuse of mass media freedom. However, there are not a lot of researches, aiming at analysis of practical problems in the abovementioned area. Meanwhile the problem of abuse of mass media freedom shall be considered from both sides.The following kinds of mass media freedom’s abuse are analysed in the paper: encouragement of cult of violence and cruelty, encouragement of pornography, use of obscene words and phrases, demonstration of tobacco and drugs consuming, distribution of extremist materials. The tasks are the following: to reveal the key problems, mass media institutions, especially TV channels, deal with while within their activity; to analyse the court practice in relation to mentioned types of abuses; to elaborate recommendations for the mass media on the most effective ways of abiding by the law.