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Bill to ban childfree propaganda passes first reading in State Duma
The law should define standards for promoting the ideology of childlessness and fines for individuals and legal entities that violate them. But in practice, the definition is still unclear. It is better to wait for the full adoption of the bill. The authors see this document as a barrier to content that can influence the decision to have children.
The State Duma has adopted in the first reading a bill banning propaganda without children. Violators face large fines, up to 5 million rubles for legal entities. At the same time, experts are still unclear what is considered propaganda in this case and what is not.
According to the bill adopted in the first reading, the fine for childless propaganda for citizens is 50-100 thousand rubles for civil servants, 100-200 thousand rubles for legal entities and 800-1 million rubles for legal entities.
However, if the violation is committed through the media or the Internet, fines for officials and individuals are doubled, and for legal entities, fines range from 1 to 4 million rubles. There are also coefficients for the promotion of free behavior among minors and propaganda among children using the media and the Internet. In the latter case, the corporation faces a fine of up to $5 million. The same fines apply to LGBT propaganda, which is prohibited in Russia.
The most important question: what is considered propaganda? Deputies have already tried to explain this. The essence of their opinion is that it is possible if a citizen says that he personally does not want to have children, but if he says: "I do not want this and you do not need it. " This is already a violation of the law. However, at the initial stage there will still be many questions and abuses, assures the chairman of the law firm "Starinsky and Partners" Vladimir Starinsky.
— Legally, propaganda is when someone incites someone to do something. That is, if a person says: I personally do not want to have children. Well, he explains, but without explaining, he says: This is my decision, and I do not want this. But if a person says: no, let's give up having children altogether. Of course, this will be propaganda. Because you are actively promoting the idea that a person does not necessarily have to have children. Therefore, in this regard, of course, there will be abuses, but legally we need to look at individual cases, and was there propaganda? This is the key question. Yes, it is. No, it is not. That's all. But if a person expresses his personal opinion or makes a personal decision, it is not propaganda. — That is, a neutral statement "I don't want to have children" is not recognized as a violation of the law without an appeal.
"You shouldn't do that" is the key question in this regard. Again, if a citizen says he doesn't want to have children and starts explaining why (and probably provides some positive arguments), questions remain about the prospects for law enforcement.
According to the authors of the bill, and for some time - the speaker of the state Vyacheslav Volodin and the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko, this document should become a barrier to content that can influence the decision to have children. And there is also content on topics that do not concern children. Some stand-up comedians of federal channels said that they do not have children. According to the lawyer, the law should not be retroactive, but the channel will most likely seek to remove this content from the network. Because even lawyers do not yet understand who will be held responsible - the comedian, the author of the monologue or the channel, the platform that posted the content. It is also not yet clear how numerous online cinemas should use the library. Representatives of the platforms refused to comment on this topic until the law is passed. Independent film expert Vladimir Lapin says that they have nothing to say yet.
The same goes for books. While certain predictions can be made based on the experience of laws banning LGBT propaganda, Mikhail Ivanov, co-owner of the Subscription Editions bookstore, suggests:
For citizens, as Valentina Matvienko previously stated, the legislative ban on propaganda of childlessness will not infringe on the rights of women who do not want or cannot have children. No one says anything about men who, for one reason or another, do not want to have children.