Medvedev Reassures Web Users

Authorities should take a measured approach to policing the Internet, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday in a speech that may ease concerns about a crackdown on free speech in cyberspace.

Rights activists have said authorities are trying to tighten regulation of the Internet, arguably the country's most vibrant venue for political discussion.

Speaking at the opening of the 12th annual Russian Internet Forum, a powwow of Internet business leaders held in the village of Gorky-10, outside Moscow, Medvedev addressed what he called "the delicate question of the relationship between freedom of speech and responsibility," in cyberspace.

"The answer to this question is fairly simple: Laws must be respected everywhere. ... At the same time, the state should take a calm, fair position" toward Internet users, he said.

Prosecutors have closed down several regional Internet sites critical of the authorities, saying they did not have the proper registration.

Federation Council member Vladimir Slutsker last month proposed requiring Russian Internet sites with more than 1,000 daily visitors to register as media outlets -- a proposal that could make blogs subject to the same regulations as newspapers.

Medvedev has said he is an avid consumer of Internet news, including from pro-opposition sites.

He has even expressed an appreciation for "Olbanian," the slang that Russians use in Internet forums. Asked during an online call-in conference last year whether Olbanian should become a school subject, Medvedev said, "One cannot ignore the necessity of learning the Olbanian language."

As first deputy prime minister, Medvedev oversaw a program to put every Russian school online.

He has promoted Internet use as part of a program to develop a knowledge-based economy and reduce Russia's dependence on oil and gas exports.

Medvedev told the forum that Russia had 40 million Internet users out of a population of 142 million.

Internet - Corruptions Biggest Enemy

Former Arkhangelsk Governor Nikolai Kiselyov has denied being questioned by law enforcement agents about a bribery scandal stemming from a video posted on the Internet last year.

Citing law enforcement sources, Vedomosti reported Friday that Kiselyov had been questioned by the Federal Security Service earlier in the week and that the Investigative Committee had a team in Arkhangelsk probing the bribery allegations.

Kiselyov denied being questioned in comments posted late Thursday evening on the Arkhangelsk web site www.dvininform.ru.

The bribery scandal erupted in July when a video appeared online that showed a man resembling Kiselyov accepting a large cash bribe from an Arkhangelsk businessman.

The grainy, black-and-white video, in which the man resembling Kiselyov handles the cash with metal pincers, was posted on a web site linked to the governor's rival, Alexander Donskoi, who was mayor of Arkhangelsk at the time.

Prosecutors initially declined to investigate Kiselyov. Donskoi was arrested one week after the video was posted and hit with corruption charges that he called politically motivated.

Another Media Clampdown Approved By Duma

The State Duma passed in a first reading Friday a bill that would allow courts to close media outlets for publishing libelous statements, a law critics say would give authorities an additional tool to crack down on dissent.

The bill would add "dissemination of deliberately false information damaging individual honor and dignity" to the list of offenses for which a media outlet can be shut down.

Under current law, courts can close media outlets for publishing state secrets, extremist statements and statements supporting terrorism.

The Duma voted 339-1 in favor of the bill, which will now face two more Duma readings before being sent to the Federation Council for consideration. If approved there, it will be passed on to the president to be signed into law.

Friday's reading came two weeks after the tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent published an article claiming that President Vladimir Putin planned to divorce his wife and marry Olympic champion gymnast Alina Kabayeva. The newspaper suspended operations — for financial reasons, according to its publisher — after Putin dismissed the story as "rubbish."

The bill's author, United Russia deputy Robert Shlegel, said Friday that the bill was drafted before the Moskovsky Korrespondent article and that it was aimed at making Russian media "more civilized."

Shlegel, 24, is a former spokesman for the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi.

Authorities have initiated numerous libel cases in recent years involving reports about public officials. In one high-profile case, Ivanovo journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov was convicted in October 2006 of publicly insulting a public official and fined 20,000 rubles ($840) for referring to Putin as "a phallic symbol" in an opinion piece.

Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said the amendment would give authorities an additional instrument to shut down independent-minded media outlets.

"Now that television and most newspapers are under the Kremlin's control, authorities want to control the very few media outlets that remain free in the country," he said. "There still are a few newspapers — and the Internet — that are out of its control."

Kremlin critics would likely be targeted should the bill become law, Panfilov said. "It would work the same way the law on extremism works, only against those who oppose the powers-that-be," he said. "If [the extremism law] worked properly, many Duma deputies would be in jail for their extremist statements."

Mikhail Fedotov, the secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists and author of the current law on mass media, said it was unnecessary to include the amendment in the media law because libel is already a criminal offense.

"You should then include [in the media law] that you should not encourage murder, rape or theft," Fedotov said, Interfax reported. "In short, the whole Criminal Code. This is just stupid."

Even without the libel amendment, "any word that a governor or mayor doesn't like is considered by courts to be false information, and the paper is simply closed," Fedotov said.

Lawmakers Propose Web Site Controls

Federation Council members are lining up behind a proposal that would force owners of web sites with more than 1,000 hits per day to register as mass media outlets, a move experts say could stifle freedom of expression.

Senator Vladimir Slutsker, who is sponsoring amendments to make the changes, said popular web sites with sizable information content should be regulated by the country's press law.

"The amendments would only affect web sites that are, in effect, Internet mass media, but which have not been duly registered as such," Slutsker said, Interfax reported.

Slutsker said the changes were necessary because there was no clear-cut definition of Internet mass media in the present press law, which was passed in 1991 -- three years before the appearance of the RuNet. He said the changes would only regulate excesses by online journalists and would not affect blogs, social networking sites or search engines.

The effort replicates a similar move in 2005, when Dmitry Frolov, head of the Federal Security Service's information security center, told the Federation Council that authorities deserved broader powers to control telecommunications and the Internet.

Ilya Ponomaryov, a State Duma deputy and member of the Information Policy Committee, dismissed Slutsker's initiative as a publicity stunt, saying there was no need to strangle budding freedom. "I don't believe any law controlling activities on the Internet could actually pass through the State Duma," he said. "I am sure that our committee will never support such amendments."


Under Russian law, senators cannot initiate laws, Ponomaryov said, adding that any Federation Council member seeking to introduce a bill must go through the relevant Duma committee.

Yekaterina Shatalina, a spokeswoman for Slutsker, downplayed concerns Tuesday, saying work was still needed before the amendments were passed. "A bill is currently being prepared and will be submitted to the State Duma before the end of June," Shatalina said. "We are not trying to control the Internet. We just want journalists to play by the rules and show responsibility for whatever they publish on the Internet."

The amendments have garnered the support of many key lawmakers, including Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, she said. Gryzlov said Tuesday that he did not support any attack on the freedom of the Internet. He said the proposed legislation should target terrorists and those who seek to destabilize the country, Interfax reported.

Shatalina said Gryzlov's concerns "were already reflected in the proposed amendments."

Alexander Kovalyov, public relations director at Rambler Media, said authorities could conceivably control what appears online by going through the country's few Internet service providers.

Anatoly Baranov, editor of online journal Forum-MSK.ru, said the country needed no laws regulating the Internet and that any attempt to do so was doomed to fail.

"They are attempting to use Russian laws to control what lies outside Russian jurisdiction," Baranov said. "Even if the amendments were passed, enforcing the law would be impossible because web site owners can easily move servers elsewhere."

The Moscow Times

Putin Ally Puts TV Channels Into National Media Holding

Bank Rossiya, whose largest shareholder is Yury Kovalchuk, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, is gathering television channels Ren-TV and St. Petersburg-based Channel 5 under a single holding called National Media Group, the new company said Friday.

Bank Rossiya, steelmaker Severstal, oil firm Surgutneftegaz and insurance group Sogaz will pool the 68 percent of Ren-TV and 72 percent of Channel 5 they currently control, the holding said.

Lyubov Sovershayeva -- the head of Bank Rossiya unit Abros who has chaired the board at Ren-TV since 2006 and the board of Petersburg TV and Radio Company, the owner of Channel 5, since last year -- will also head the new company, National Media Group said.

Bank Rossiya, which currently owns a 38 percent stake in Channel 5 through Abros, will initially have a controlling stake in the holding, the statement said.

Other media assets, including daily newspaper Izvestia, may also be included in the new holding, the statement said.

Sergei Fursenko, head of Lentransgaz and president of Zenit Football Club, has been tapped for the post of general director, Interfax reported.

The founders of National Media Group are uniting their media assets "with a view to making the channels more competitive and their management more efficient," the statement said. The group would be "guided by the need" to educate young people and to establish "efficient information exchange among the public, business and the authorities," it said.

The media group will have an advisory council, to be headed by Olympic champion and State Duma Deputy Alina Kabayeva. It will also include Italy's Angelo Codignoni, a former president of the Eurosport television channel, and Hans Mahr, head of the media group of Germany's RTL, which owns a 30 percent stake in Ren-TV, Itar-Tass reported.
The Moscow Times