Federal Law No.191-FZ of December 1, 1995 on the State Support of the Mass Media and Book-Publishing in the Russian Federation
Adopted by the State Duma on October 18, 1995
Approved by the Federation Council on November 15, 1995
The present Federal Law shall regulated the procedure for the State support of mass media and book-publishing and for the privatization of the enterprises ensuring their functioning, and shall be directed towards securing the citizens» constitutional right to obtain full and objective information.
Chapter 1. Basic Concepts
Article 1. Basic Concepts Used in the Present Federal Law
For purposes of the present Federal Law these shall be understood:
State support of the mass (information) media: the totality of the organizational, technical-organizational, legal, economic and any other measures established by the State for the purposes of securing the rights of citizens to obtain objective information, to exercise the freedom of speech, and also for the purposes of ensuring the independence of the mass media;
mass information: printed, audio, audiovisual and any other messages and materials intended for an indefinite circle of persons;
a mass (information) medium: a periodical printed publication, a television, radio, video or cinema newsreel program, or any other form of periodic dissemination of mass information;
a periodical printed publication: a newspaper, magazine, almanac, bulletin, or any other publication having a permanent title, a current number and coming out at least once a year;
a television, radio, video and cinema newsreel program: the totality of periodic audio or audiovisual news and materials (transmissions); it has a permanent title and comes out (in put on the air) at least once a year;
products of mass media: a circulation or a past thereof of an individual issue of a periodical printed publication, an individual release of a television, radio or cinema newsreel program, a circulation or a part thereof of an audio or video recording of a program;
dissemination of mass media products: a sale (subscription, delivery, distribution) of periodical printed publications, audio or video records of programs, transmission (broadcasting) of television and radio programs, and showing of cinema newsreel programs;
an editorial board of a mass medium: an organization (regardless of the form of ownership) conducting the production and release of a mass medium;
a publishing house: an enterprise of the State form of ownership or an organization of any other form of ownership, conducting the preparation, production and release of books and any other printed products;
a polygraph enterprise: an enterprise of the State form of ownership or an organization of any other form of ownership conducting the material - and - technical support of the release of newspapers, books and magazines;
a television and radio broadcasting organization (a television and radio (broadcasting) company, TRBC): an organization conducting the production, montage, arrangement in time and dissemination, with the use of electromagnetic waves (through the air, cable, wire and any other electromagnetic systems) of sound (radio broadcasting), of visual and audiovisual (television broadcasting) mass information and of data intended to be received directly by television viewers and radio listeners;
a transmitting center (TC): radio and television transmitting centers (RTTC), radio centers (RC) and any other telecommunications organizations which furnish, among other things, the services in the dissemination of television and/or radio programs prepared by the television and radio broadcasting organizations;
an information agency: an organization conducting the selection and operational dissemination of information;
an organization for dissemination of periodical printed publications: an organization conducting the realization of periodical printed publications both in the Russian Federation and in the States;
a monopolist: an enterprise or an organization considered to be such in accordance with the antimonopoly legislation;
a mass medium of advertising character: a mass medium in which advertising exceeds 40 per cent of the volume of an individual issue of a periodical publications, and in television and radio programs, 25 of the volume of broadcasting;
a mass medium of erotic character: a periodical printed publications or a television or radio program which by and large and systematically make use of the interest in sex.
Chapter 2. Tax, Customs, Currency and Other Financial Regulation
See also the Federal Law No. 188-FZ of November 30, 1995 on Amending Certain Laws of the Russian Federation on Taxes
According to Article 10 of the present Law, Article 2 shall be effective from January 1, 1996 till December 31, 1998
Article 2. Tax Regulation
There shall be exempted from the value added tax the turnover in the realization of the products of the mass media, the book products connected with education, science and culture, and also the editorial, publishing and polygraph activity in the output of the book productsconnected with education, science and culture, or of newspaper or magazine products.
There shall be exempted from the value added tax the services in the transportation, loading, unloading and reloading of the periodical printed publications and book products connected with education, science and culture.
There shall not be subject to taxation the profit obtained by the editorial boards of the mass media, by publishing houses, information agencies, television and radio companies, by organizations for the dissemination of periodical printed publications and book products, and by transmitting centers, the profit from the output and dissemination of the products _, of the mass media and book products connected with education, science and culture in the part transferred to the federal budget.
There shall not be subject to taxation the profit obtained by the polygraph enterprises and organizations from the rendering of services in the output of the book products connected with education, science and culture, and of the products of the mass media in the part transferred to the federal budget.
There shall not be subject to taxation the profit obtained by the editorial boards of the mass media, by publishing houses, information agencies, television and radio broadcasting companies and by organizations for the dissemination of periodical printed publications and book products and assigned by them to finance the capital investments in their main field of activity. The non - taxable share of the profit assigned for those purposes shall not be restricted.
According to Article 10 of the present Law, Article 3 shall be effective from January 1, 1996 till December 31, 1998
Article 3. Customs Regulation
See also the Federal Law No. 185-FZ of November 25, 1995 on Supplementing the Law of the Russian Federation on the Customs Tariff
The periodical printed publications and the book products connected with education, science and culture imported into and exported from the customs territory of the Russian Federation by the editorial boards of the mass medial and by publishing houses shall be exempted from the customs duty and the fees connected with the import and export.
The paper, polygraph materials and polygraph carriers, the audio and video information, the technological and engineering equipment imported into the customs territory of the Russian Federation by the editorial boards of the mass media, by publishing houses, information agencies, television and radio broadcasting companies, polygraph enterprises and organizations and used by them for the output of the products of the mass media and book products connected with education, science and culture shall be exempted from the customs duty.
According to Article 10 of the present Law, Article 4 shall be effective from January 1, 1996 till December 31, 1998
Article 4. Currency Regulation
The editorial boards of the mass media, publishing houses, polygraph enterprises and organizations, television and radio broadcasting companies, information agencies, and organizations for the dissemination of periodical printed publications shall be exempted from the obligatory sale of the currency returns received from the export of the book products connected with education, science and culture, and newspaper, magazine, audio and video products, if the latter are used to acquire equipment and materials necessary for the output of the products of mass media and book products connected with education, science and culture, and for the expansion of the said output.
According to Article 10 of the present Law, Article 5 shall be effective from January 1, 1996 till December 31, 1998
Article 5. Other Financial and Economic Regulation
The editorial boards of the mass media, publishing houses, information agencies, television and radio broadcasting companies shall use the services of the organizations of the postal, telegraphic and telephonic communication at the rates stipulated for the budgetary organizations.
The editorial boards of the mass media, publishing houses, polygraph enterprises and organizations, information agencies, television and radio broadcasting companies, organizations for the dissemination of periodical printed publications, and transmitting centers shall pay the rent of the premises in the buildings that are federal ownership at the tariffs and rates not exceeding those established for the organizations of the sphere of culture.
The editorial boards of the mass media, publishing houses, information agencies, and television and radio broadcasting companies shall be given under their economic management the premises which they own or use in the process of their production and economic activity.
Article 6. Peculiarities of the Tax, Customs, Currency and Other Financial Regulation
The privileges stipulated by Articles 2 - 5 of the present Federal Law shall not apply to the books and periodical printed publications of advertising and erotic character and to the mass media of advertising and erotic character.
The privileges stipulated by Articles 2 - 5 of the present Federal Law shall be applied in the procedure and on the terms which are determined by the relevant legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the tax, customs, currency and budgetary issues.
Chapter 3. Peculiarities of the Privatization of the Enterprises Ensuring the Publication of Newspaper, Magazine and Book Products
The privatization of the enterprises ensuring the publication of newspaper, magazine and book products shall be carried out in accordance with the existing legislation of the Russian Federation on privatization, taking into account the peculiarities established by the present Federal Law.
Article 7. Restrictions on Privatization
There shall not be subject to privatization the publishing houses and polygraph enterprises referred exclusively to the objects of the federal ownership:
the polygraph enterprises that are monopolists on the all - Russian market of goods (services);
the polygraph enterprises equipped with high technologies for the output of highly artistic and high-quality printed products;
the publishing houses that are monopolists on the all - Russia market of goods (services);
the monopolist enterprises that ensure the functioning of the polygraph branch.
The publishing houses and polygraph enterprises falling within the effect of the present article may be transformed into joint-stock companies in the procedure stipulated by a decision of the Government of the Russian Federation not earlier than three years after from the day when the present Federal Law enters into force.
Article 8. Peculiarities of the Privatization of the Publishing
Houses and Polygraph Enterprises Referred to the Objects of the Federal Ownership
The polygraph enterprises which are situated on the territory of the entities of the Russian Federation, are referred to the objects of the federal ownership and are monopolists in the production of newspaper, magazine and book products on the territory of a relevant entity of the Russian Federation, and also the polygraph enterprises comprising the system of decentralized printing of newspapers and magazines, shall be transformed into joint-stock companies.
25.5 per cent of the shares shall be assigned to the federal ownership for a period of three years.
24.5 per cent of the ordinary shares shall be given free of charge to the polygraph enterprise that are being transformed into joint-stock companies.
50 per cent of the ordinary shares shall be given free of charge to juridical persons: the editorial boards of the mass media and the publishing houses that release products at a given polygraph enterprise and are being transformed into open joint-stock companies or are such companies. The blocks of shares shall be distributed among them proportionally to the volumes of the released products in kind.
The editorial boards of the mass media, the publishing houses and polygraph enterprises may sell a part of the shares, attracting the investors at their choice, on condition that the field of their activity is preserved.
The editorial boards of the mass media and the publishing houses releasing the products of advertising or erotic character shall not be admitted to the allotment of shares by a closed subscription.
Article 9. Procedure for the Privatization of the Publishing Houses and Polygraph Enterprises Which Are Not Monopolists or Have Been Transferred to the Ownership of the Entities of the Russian Federation
The privatization of the publishing houses and polygraph enterprises that are in the federal ownership and are not monopolists, and also of the publishing houses and polygraph enterprises that have been transferred to the ownership of the entities of the Russian Federation shall be carried out in accordance with the present Federal Law and the regional programs of privatization.
Chapter 4. On the Procedure for the Entering into Force of the Present Federal Law
Article 10. The Time for the Entering into Force of the Present Federal Law
The present Federal Law shall enter into force as of the day of its official publication.
Articles 2 - 5 of the present Federal Law shall enter into force as of January 1, 1006, shall be effective till December 31, 1998 and shall lose force as of January 1, 1999.
Articles 7 - 9 of the present Federal Law shall enter into force as of the day of its official publication and shall be effective till the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation approves the State Program of the Privatization of State and Municipal Enterprises in the Russian Federation.
Article 11. On the Bringing of the Normative Acts in Conformity with the Present Federal Law
To recommend the President of the Russian Federation and assign the Government of the Russian Federation to bring their legal acts in conformity with the present Federal Law.
President of the Russian Federation
Boris Yeltsin
Moscow, the Kremlin
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