MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee is urging the media to deny terrorists access to the media and other information outlets, NAC spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said on Wednesday.
“It is wrong to play up to terrorists by giving them the [media] rostrum, since this provokes new acts of terror. Terrorists use the media to their own ends,” he said.
The media must also undertake not to disclose any of the plans of antiterrorism forces, he warned.
Terrorist activity is essentially designed to produce a shock effect on society and influence the authorities, Sintsov said.
“In carrying out their treacherous plans, the bandits buy airtime with blood and seek publicity in the media,” he said, using a term often applied to militants fighting government forces in Russia’s North Caucasus region.
The NAC spokesman urged journalists to do all they can to prevent “terrorist masterminds” from using the media to manipulate the government and society.
“Terrorism” in official Russian politics is used loosely and in preference to more neutral terms such as “insurgency.”