The organizers of the rally in support of journalists filed lawsuits against the Moscow mayor's office

The organizers of the rally, at which it was planned to support the journalists declared by foreign agents, sent claims to three courts of the capital at once, after the authorities refused to coordinate their event. This was reported to RBC by the co-chair of the Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers Sofya Rusova.

On August 23, the organizers of the action applied to the mayor's office with a request to allow a rally to be held on Pushkinskaya Square or on Nikitsky Boulevard on September 4, after a number of media outlets and journalists were included in the list of foreign agents. Organizers expected up to 500 people to attend the event. The mayor's office refused to hold the rally. The response of the Moscow Department of Regional Security stated that the city authorities refused the organizers due to restrictions imposed due to covid-19 . Clause 2.6 of the Decree of the Mayor of Moscow dated June 8, 2020 No. 68-UM, according to which there is a ban on holding public events in the city, was called the basis there.

Rusova said that the organizers intend to challenge both the refusal itself and the legality of the mayor's decree. “I filed a claim by mail, there are documents on sending. There is the prospect of a real trial in terms of challenging Sobyanin's order. I don't know if anyone challenged the decree itself, but I think that we have judicial prospects in this direction. We will dispute the refusal to hold the event and this decree of the Mayor of Moscow dated June 8, 2020 No. 68 on the stages of lifting restrictions, on the basis of which they argued. We believe that there were no grounds for banning our public event,” she says.

The preparation of three lawsuits at once in different courts of the capital is due to the fact that they often argue over the jurisdiction of cases, Rusova explained. “We filed with the Presnensky [court], based on the subject of the claim. To Tagansky - at the location of the prefecture of the Central Administrative District. Based on the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the extract says that the government of Moscow, whose decree we are challenging, is Tverskaya, 13, that is, the jurisdiction of the Tverskoy district. Accordingly, therefore, they filed it in the Tverskoy district, ”she said.