Introduction. In the information society framework mass media fulfil a number of significant social functions. That leads to provision of governmental and legal guarantees for mass media and journalists. Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is one of these guarantees, and the article stipulates liability for impeding legal professional activities of journalists. Purpose. The research aims at analyzing a set of norms of the criminal legislation that provide liability for impeding legal professional activities of journalists; some statutory regulations administering production and distribution of mass information; and major academic and practical interpretations of the disposition of article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The author particularly focuses on the court practice for this article. Results. Systematic consideration of the notion of “impeding legal professional activities of journalists” reveals that the drawback of the article is an emphasis on only one form of impeding legal professional activities of journalists whereas journalists can be attacked at the very early stage of preparation of information materials. The emphasis on one party of the mass information activities – a journalist – is another drawback of article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Article 58 of the Act of the Russian Federation on “Mass Media” stipulates that founders of mass media, editorial boards, publishers and distributors of mass media as parties to a relationship, and impeding their legal professional activities must be liable. Website owners, hosting providers, people that administer information distribution, are also specified by the Russian legislation as parties that take part in production and distribution of mass information. When connected with physical and psychological coercion to distribute or refuse to distribute information, impeding legal activities aimed at production and distribution of mass information by the specified parties constitutes the same social threat as the similar actions aimed at journalists. Conclusion. The author concludes that legal ambiguity of the disposition of article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation influences the court practice. The author suggests changing the formulation of the disposition of article 144 to rectify the defects.