The paper offers a review of the growing openness of Russian courts. Driven by statuary law and resolutions of the top courts, judges slowly affirm the right of the public and the media to observe and report on the judicial process. A number of guidelines by the Supreme Court consider practical modalities of the journalistic work so as to facilitate their access to the courtrooms. They take into account the spread of new communication technologies such as online reporting or texting. The paper specifically addresses case law on issues of balance between access to information and the right to privacy, possible limitations to freedom of information and media freedom, prejudgement by the media, etc so on. Assessed are communication aspects of some notorious cases, such as the recent trials of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Pussy Riot artists and Bolotnaya protesters.