Neo-Soviet Blog Crackdown in Russia
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Reuters reports that the Kremlin is instituting a major crackdown on the Russian blogosphere:
A loophole in the law allows authorities to treat Web sites as fully fledged publications -- with all the responsibilities that go with that status -- and then use these requirements to take court action against them.Two local Web sites have been punished for failing to register as media outlets. Thousands of other sites are unaffected but many in the Internet community say the court actions could be the start of a trend.
Reuters quotes Oleg Panfilov, a freedom of speech campaigner who heads the Centre for Extreme Journalism, saying: "It is a situation which reminds me of Soviet times when the KGB jailed people for telling jokes. It's bureaucrats taking liberties." The attacks are beginning in remote provincial areas like Khakassia and Komi and focusing on blogs that seek to report news like newspapers in what the attorney for one of the bloggers called a "test case which could set a precendent not just for Internet news sites like Novy Fokus but also for blogs which are proliferating in Russia."
Publius Pundit has already reported on the case of Vladimir Rakhmankov, the blogger who was attacked for daring to refer to Vladmir Putin as the "nation's Phallic symbol" because of Putin's efforts to get Russians to increase the population. It's clear that the Kremlin views the Russian blogosphere as a threat and is moving to neutralize it, having already seized control of all the major TV stations and many major newspapers.
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