Web under scrutiny

Over the last decade, the ability of Russia's TV, radio and print media to pursue independent editorial policies has largely been curtailed by state control and self-censorship. Freedom House now ranks Russia 78th out of 100 in its Freedom of the Press index. Meanwhile, Internet use has been spreading like wildfire among those Russians who seek alternative news content.

Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin's chief political strategist, recently proposed setting up a national search engine, akin to Google but financed strictly by Russian investors, RBK Daily reported.
Whether this idea is just part of Surkov's grand proposal to align Russia's science and technology industries with those of the West and whether this project can indeed be implemented is unclear. But Yevgeny Morozov, a politics and technology researcher, wrote: "We should not underestimate the Kremlin's capacity to adapt to digital realities: it has cultivated a sprawling community of Internet gurus who work or consult for the government."

In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin encouraged many of his acolytes to set up blogs and news web sites. A 2009 report by the Washington-based Freedom House found that this period was marked by an emergence of Kremlin-affiliated propaganda and blogging sites.

Pavel Danilin, who runs the pro-government Kreml.org page on LiveJournal, said the initiative to use the blogosphere to mobilise supporters "came primarily from Dmitry Medvedev himself".
Following Medvedev's election as president, proselytising for an Internet revolution became one of his signature undertakings.

In March Medvedev, an avid blogger, berated his colleagues for their lack of Internet know-how, urging them to start their own blogs and noting that only "Those who know [how to use the Internet] can be called modern managers." But Iosif Dzyaloshinsky of the Higher School of Economics said that such efforts were merely an attempt to improve the government's image, and were not that effective: "We've done the research - these public websites and blogs are not popular... particularly the regional ones, where people scarcely know of them."

Now Medvedev is reportedly planning to start his own Twitter account. Over the past year, this social networking and microblogging service had amassed more than 180,000 Russian-speaking users, which is some 26 times more than the previous year.

In the hours following the March 29 metro bombings, Twitter also became one of the top sources of information, delivering firsthand accounts and bringing worldwide attention to the situation. Ekho Moskvy radio even quoted one of its users, comparing the rate of 40 tweets per second to the four television reports broadcast live that morning - a statistic that has prompted some to hail the medium as a possible substitute for Russia's ailing journalism.

Pyotr Polonitsky, a spokesman for the Russian Union of Journalists, insisted that a cyber platform that merely provides space to exchange information cannot compete with officially licenced and professionally-run media, adding: "It is like comparing a bicycle to a motorbike."

Alexey Sidorenko, co-editor of the Echo on Global Voices blogging site, said that LiveJournal was "a lot better at fostering political debates and creating stimulating discussion forums."
But in March 2008 a LiveJournal blogger, Dmitry Solovyov, was accused of "inciting hatred against the police and the FSB." According to Sidorenko, Solovyov had been "invited" to the regional FSB office several times because of posts that criticised the state. "Just like the KGB," Sidorenko said.

The charges against Solovyov were eventually dropped, but his vociferous writing was significantly toned down. Solovyov's case was included in the report on Internet censorship issued in March by the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. The report highlighted six more similar cases of bloggers being persecuted and one journalist, the owner of Ingushetia.ru Magomed Yevloyev, being murdered. The organisation listed Russia as a country "under surveillance", citing government propaganda and blocking of independent sites as additional considerations.

Bill regulating extremist sites pulled from Parliament

In a bid to get tough on online extremism, lawmakers have submitted a set of amendments that would make it possible to shut down websites with extremist content by court order. The amendments were withdrawn, however, for further examination, which underscores how complex legislation dealing with the Internet can get.
One of the more pointed amendments targets the current law on extremist activity and proposes a new Article 13, which would introduce responsibility for publishing extremist materials over the Internet. The current law does not give any details on the role of the Internet as a mass medium, therefore regulation of extremist content online is not addressed. In the new bill, "in case of repeated posting of extremist material, a court can rule to close access to the [Internet] site on the territory of the Russian Fede­ration." Internet service providers would have to block the site within a month of the court order
The bill would amend three existing laws - On Measures Against Extremist Activity, On Free­dom of Conscience and Religious Be­liefs, and On the Media.
"Prosecutors are struggling like a fish on ice," the Vedomosti business daily quoted one of the authors of the bill, State Duma Deputy Sergei Kap­kov, as saying. "We have met and talked with providers, with the heads of sites like Mail.ru and Livejournal.ru, and experts," says Kapkov, a member of the State Duma Committee on Infor­mation Policy. According to him, the problems in shutting down sites are not technical, but legislative.
Submitted on December 3, the bill was withdrawn the following day for further discussion.
Indeed, experts concede that lack of clearly worded legislation is a two-way problem - difficulty in prosecuting extremism online and making journalists vulnerable to prosecution.
"We have to admit that until we get clear, civilized and maximally detailed amendments to laws that regulate Internet use, we are vulnerable," Natalia Loseva, director of Internet projects at the RIA Novosti news agency told The Moscow News. "In this case, it's the lack of rules that gets in the way of freedom of information."
Loseva admits that her rights as an internet journalist would be limited, but supports legislation that regulates information that is hateful or that incites drug use. In order for those regulations to be clear and effective, however, they have to be created together with the expert community. "There are a lot of nuances involved in information posted over the Internet," she said. "For instance, where does the blog end and the position of the mass media begin? Who exactly is responsible for the text? The person who posted or the website?"
Vedmosti, citing an unnamed sour­ce in the presidential administration, said that chances were slim that the amendments would be passed anytime soon because President Dmitry Med­vedev has pledged a commitment to free speech. "No government officials will be able to hamper discussions in the Internet," the President said in his state-of-the-nation address in No­vember.
The authors of the bill were unavailable for comment this week, but a source in the State Duma confirmed to The Moscow News that the bill had been withdrawn. She could not give any further details on when and if it would be discussed further.
Russia does not boast a large share of Internet users, but their numbers are growing very rapidly, and the rate of growth of the Internet as a medium in Russia is outpacing those of other countries. According to the All Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, 20 percent of Russians (about 28 million) used the Internet as a source of Information in 2008.
According to TNS Gallup, the average monthly auditory of the Yandex search engine is 16.1 million Rus­sians. Nearly 16 million Russians use Mail.ru.

Russian sentenced for defacing friend's internet profile

MOSCOW (MN) - A 22-year old man from the Urals city of Izhevsk got 1 year suspended sentence for defacing the profile of his acquaintance on the Russian social network odnoklassniki.ru, the Gazeta.ru internet daily reported on Wednesday.
The daily quoted a report by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Service that said that the young man managed to enter the profile of the girl he knew by guessing the password which was the owner's birth date figures. Upon succeeding in this, he changed one of the photos on the web page to another one "of erotic character" the report says.
Apart from 1 year suspended sentence the court ordered the young man to pay a fine of 20 thousand rubles (over $700).