The prosecutor's office has written a proposed new article in the law “On Counteracting Extremist Activities” that concerns the Internet.
Photo: Roman Yarovitsin
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Prosecutor Fights Extremism on Internet
The Prosecutor General's Office has prepared draft amendments to toughen laws on the media, create norms of responsibility for Internet sites and increase government control over religious educational programs to fight racist and nationalist crimes. The amendments have been submitted to the State Duma Security Committee for examination. They were presented by Deputy Prosecutor General Evgeny Zabarchuk at a committee session devoted to crimes against foreigners.
Current legislation gives “citizens and organizations” the right to demand of media that they publish retractions to objectionable material. The punishment for refusing to publish a retraction is up to 500 rubles for the editor-in-chief and up to 5000 rubles for the publication itself. The prosecutor's office wants to add state agencies, including itself, to the list of those who can demand retractions. In addition, it wants religious education programs to be registered with the government.
The prosecutor's office has also written a proposed new article in the law “On Counteracting Extremist Activities” that concerns the Internet. Under the new article, a list of extremist material on the Internet would be published regularly, after which the provider would be required to block access to it within a month. Repeated postings of extremist material would lead to the closure of the offending websites. Deputy speaker of the Federation Council Alexander Torshin recently made strongly-worded criticism of the worldwide web for the easy access to “terrorist propaganda” there.
Legislators and analysts doubt the effectiveness of the measures proposed. They point out that control can be exerted only over the Russian segment of the Internet. “Taking the technological path of China is complicate,” commented deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications Sergey Gavrilov in reference to the Internet. Deputy chairman of the Security Committee Gennady Gudkov commented, “We tighten the screws and the situation only gets worse.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 11, 2008
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