MOSCOW, September 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved in the third and final reading on Friday the so-called media ownership law which limits foreign ownership in the capital of the Russian media outlets.
The document contains, in particular, amendments to the national law on mass media which would limit foreign ownership to 20 percent, down from the current 50 percent.
Russian lawmakers believe that the adoption of the amendments would eliminate the possibility of foreign owners influencing media policies and content in Russia.
The amendments affect all types of media, although their primal target has been television and radio stations.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, earlier warned the new law could potentially "concentrate ideas and information in the hands of political elites, thus hampering the important watchdog function of the journalists."
According to one of the draftsmen, Vadim Dengin, about 30 media will be affected by the new amendments, including Forbes, Kommersant and Vedomosti.
Earlier, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev said he backs the new law, as the "foreign media cause split within society."
