Tsargrad employee fined over AI photo of Samara Oblast governor that created a “threat to public safety”

Tsargrad employee fined over AI photo of Samara Oblast governor that created a “threat to public safety”

A court in Samara Oblast fined Tsargrad journalist Vadim Afanasyev over a post containing a generated photograph of regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev and the deputy chair of the local Duma, Verstka noted.

The grounds for opening a case under the article on abuse of media freedom (Part 9, Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offences) were a post by Afanasyev on his channel, published on May 31, in which he reflected on the results of Fedorishchev’s two years as governor.

The journalist accompanied the publication with a generated photograph depicting the regional head sitting at a laid table with alcohol. As Verstka established, the photo was edited using Google’s Gemini neural network.

In the post, Afanasyev also stated that Fedorishchev had promised a major change in the Duma’s composition but had not done so.

“Right now, he is signing a figurative capitulation to the local elites — from the previous toxic composition of the regional Duma, 55% of deputies will go forward instead of 5%,” the publication says.

The court found that both the photograph and the claim that Fedorishchev had promised to change the Duma’s composition were false information that could create “a threat of a mass violation of public order and safety.”

At the hearing, Afanasyev said the publication was a post of disappointment in which he expressed only a personal opinion; he had found the photograph in a public page and, choosing between two, selected the one published by mistake because he was “overloaded.” Nevertheless, the journalist was fined 70,000 rubles. The appeal filed by the defense also did not change the decision; it entered into force on September 30.

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