Recent decisions and statutes, some published in this and other issues of the Newsletter, underscore the importance of a habit in government of saying what the law is in advance and then following it.
Uncertainty chills information flows.
Recently, it issued a decision having to do with objectivity and accuracy, recommending that the editor of Express-gazeta be fired. Allegedly, the paper used information that was neither reliable nor impartial. It probably did not help that the character of members of the State Duma was impugned. Quite understandably, the Tribunal criticized the fact that the head of Ostankino, Vyacheslav Bragin, was maintaining his broadcast position while running for the Duma. Bragin withdrew from the race, partly because of the Tribunal's actions.