76In view of the important role played by the media, in particular the audiovisual media, in modern society (see, to that effect, ECtHR, 17 September 2009, Manole and Others v. Moldova, CE:ECHR:2009:0917JUD001393602, paragraph 97, and 16 June 2016, Delfi v. Estonia, CE:ECHR:2015:0616JUD006456909, paragraph 134), it was foreseeable that large-scale media support for the actions and policies of the Russian Government destabilising Ukraine, provided, in particular during very popular television programmes, by a person appointed by a decree of President Putin as Head of RS, a news agency that the applicant himself describes as a ‘unitary enterprise’ of the Russian State, could be covered by the criterion based on the concept of ‘active support’, provided that the resulting limitations on the freedom of expression comply with the other conditions that must be satisfied in order for that freedom to be legitimately restricted.
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