Posting Could Incur Fines
Published: June 27, 2012 (Issue # 1715)
MOSCOW — Authorities are proposing to introduce fines and short prison stays for those placing hyperlinks to “extremist content” on the Internet, media reports said Tuesday.
According to a copy of the proposed amendments on the Communications and Press Ministry website, penalties for including links to extremist content could stretch to 3,000 rubles ($90) or a 15-day administrative sentence, Vedomosti reported.
In another amendment, mass media outlets accused of extremist activity could be fined up to 300,000 rubles ($9,000). Fines for outlets judged to promote terrorism could reach 1 million rubles ($30,370).
Authorities consider content “extremist” after the Prosecutor General’s Office files a complaint and the Justice Ministry includes the item in the federal list of extremist materials.
There are currently 1,256 items on the list of extremist materials. For the most part, leaflets, songs, video clips by nationalists, separatists and radical Islamist groups make up the list.
But bloggers and experts consulted by Vedomosti considered the latest amendments absurd and ineffective.
“This is beyond my understanding, we’re heading toward dictatorship,” said Rustem Adagamov, a well-known blogger who writes under the name drugoi.