28 ORLOVSKAYA ISKRA v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 84. In the context of electoral campaigns, Russian law drew a distinction between providing information to the public (the voters) and “campaigning” (electioneering). While the federal legislation acknowledged the right to carry out “campaigning” for citizens and non-governmental organisations, the mass media had the function of providing information without engaging in “campaigning”, which is not subject to the requirement of objectivity. The distinction between “campaigning” and information for voters served the purposes of ensuring free expression of the voters’ will and transparency of the elections. 85. “Campaigning” was clearly defined as activities (i) by a candidate herself or an election group, conducted themselves or through others, (ii) aimed at inducing voters to vote for or against a candidate or a group; (iii) during an election campaign or, if via broadcast or print media, within the twenty-eight days preceding election day. The applicable laws listed specific types of situation amounting to “campaigning”, including calls to vote for or against a candidate. It was incumbent on the courts to determine the direct and immediate aim of “campaigning” rather than a mere aim of providing information. 86. “Campaigning” was considered an unlawful activity if carried out by the mass media. It was not necessary to establish whether such an activity had indeed induced or could induce voters to vote one way or another. The Government argued in substance that the rule which was applied to the applicant organisation was related to political advertising. Thus, the national authorities had a wide margin of appreciation, as with the regulation of commercial advertising. 87. During the relevant period the applicant organisation had issued two publications contributing to the creation of a negative view of one of the candidates in the State Duma election. According to the Government, the “campaigning” aim of the impugned and other publications was demonstrated by the following: the underlying idea of presenting effects of the same person “holding the reins of power”; a pattern of consistently negative assessment, over a period of time, of one candidate’s activities; the regional branch of the Communist Party was one of the two founders of the newspaper; the applicant organisation had expressed to the Electoral Commission its intention to accept proposals for publications for a fee and, as required by the law, had published the fees applicable to publications on behalf of political parties; the applicant organisation had signed a contract with the Communist Party for this purpose, and some of the publications in the applicant organisation’s newspaper during the electoral campaign had indeed mentioned the Party’s sponsorship (see paragraph 7 above). In the Government’s view, the above convincingly confirmed the applicant organisation’s intention to engage in “campaigning” during the election campaign. The impugned publications also fell within the scope of the “campaigning” criteria set out in 1999 by the Journalists’ Union of Russia