[Infowarrior] - Russian prosecutors eye Internet censorship

Fri Apr 25 02:42:55 UTC 2008

Russian prosecutors eye Internet censorship

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_
id=132253

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 09:06pm (Mla time) 04/23/2008

MOSCOW--The Russian prosecutor's office wants tough anti-extremism laws to
be extended to the Internet, state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported
Wednesday, prompting fears of growing media censorship.

The prosecutors office has proposed a legal amendment to bring the Internet
under the same rules as printed media, Vyacheslav Sizov, a top official at
the prosecutor general's office told the daily.

Newspapers deemed in court to have published extremist material can be shut
down under current laws.

The new proposal is for any website deemed to have hosted extremist material
to be blocked by providers in Russia "within a month," Sizov said.

The Internet is the freest area of the media in Russia, where almost all
television and many newspapers are under formal or unofficial government
control.

The extremism law has already come under fire from human rights activists,
who say its sweeping nature is open to abuse by officials wanting to outlaw
legitimate criticism.

"It is a worry whenever the government tries to change any law," Oleg
Panfilov, director of the Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations, told
AFP.

"It is difficult to find anyone who is not against extremism but it depends
on how the law is used. The government uses (it) selectively."

News website www.gazeta.ru was warned for extremism last year after it wrote
about cartoons that satirized the prophet Mohammed.