A court in Magnitogorsk, a major industrial city in the Urals, has fined photographer Tatyana Gladskikh two thousand roubles (US$22) over a photo with rainbow flags that she published on a stock image website. This was reported by the Baza Telegram channel.
The woman was found guilty under the article concerning the display of extremist organisation symbols (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). Gladskikh was accused over a photo she had published on the American stock photo site Dreamstime.
According to the court ruling, Gladskikh “published a photo where she and another woman are posed against a backdrop of a flag with six rainbow-coloured stripes, wearing bracelets in the same colours on their wrists.” The court claimed that the photographer knows “the rainbow flag is a symbol of the LGBT movement,” which has been designated an extremist organisation in Russia.
Gladskikh admitted her guilt and removed the photo. The case against her was opened in response to a complaint from an unknown person. In Gladskikh’s opinion, the complaint could have come from those who had used her photos without permission and had been held accountable as a result.
“I’ve been working with stock photo agencies for a long time, and when I travel abroad and see my own photos, I’m confident they were purchased. But when I see my photos in Russia, I’m 99 per cent sure they were stolen. That’s why I signed an agreement with a legal firm to protect my rights. For example, there’s a banner with my photo hanging up in our city. I write to the organisation: ‘I’m sure you didn’t purchase it and this is a violation.’ They just tell me to get lost. Then my lawyers take them to court—those who stole my photos get fined. So I think there are quite a few angry people out there. Apparently, they’ve purposefully started searching for photos like this. It’s impossible to stumble on them by accident. They would have had to go to the site, search my profile and enter the exact abbreviation,” Baza quotes Gladskikh as saying.
Asya Sokolova for OVD-Info
The adoption of the “LGBT propaganda” law marked not only widespread censorship but also intensified repression against LGBTQ people and the organisations that support them. With the designation of the “International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organisation,” this pressure has increased once again.
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