Media policy as a tool for autocratic regimes to control civil society: example of Russian Federation

In the time of well-developed informational technologies, fast and worldwide spread of information can be seen as a positive tendency toward freedom of speech, a useful mechanism of communication between civil society all around the world and a valid instrument to spotlight human rights violations. Social networks became an alternative channel through which information and communication could flow outside of the state censorship. Media, which recently gained more independence, played a significant role in the work of human rights defending campaigns nationally and globally. But what effect did it provoke for autocratic regimes? The dissemination of information is increasingly limited in autocratic regimes: national laws interfere with the functioning of independent media, impose limitations incompatible with the work of dissent media, prioritize state-controlled media and broadcasts and use propaganda as a tool to shape people’s opinion and to support the power-keeping ability of autocrats. This research is multidisciplinary as the topic crosses the realms of political, legal and media sciences, therefore the mixed methods approach will be used. The aim of the research is to explore the connection between established media policy and civil society attitudes in and outside of the Russian Federation, therefore it will use secondary methods (such as systematic reviews of existing literature and qualitative thematic analysis of digital data).