Russia Profile цитирует
Pyotr Polonitsky, the head of the press service at Russia’s Union of Journalists, argues strongly against such judgments, insisting that a cyber platform that merely provides space to exchange information cannot compete with officially licensed and professionally-run media. “It is like comparing a bicycle to a motorbike,” he said with a certain degree of aloofness. Alexey Sidorenko, co-editor of the RuNet Echo on Global Voices blogging portal and a former researcher at Moscow Carnegie Center, supports this opinion, warning that the quality of information on Web sites like Twitter should not be overestimated. “LiveJournal is a lot better at fostering political debates and creating stimulating discussion forums,” Sidorenko said. The Web site, which has become the epitome of Russia’s blogosphere and amassed well over a million users (second only to the United States), and hosts blogs of many politicians, including Medvedev.
But despite its large contingent and a vibrant debate culture, in March of 2008 Dmitry Soloviev, one of LiveJournal’s bloggers, was accused of “inciting hatred against the police and the FSB.” According to Sidorenko, Soloviev had been “invited” to the regional FSB office on a number of occasions because of his posts that criticized the state of political affairs in the country. “Just like the KGB,” Sidorenko said.
After two years of legal proceedings the charges against Soloviev were dropped, but his previously vociferous writing was significantly toned down. Soloviev’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 Russian bloggers being persecuted and one online journalist, the owner of the Ingush news Web site Magomed Yevloyev, being murdered. The organization listed Russia as a country “under surveillance,” citing government propaganda and blocking of independent Web sites as additional considerations.
In response to the report, an online media pundit Aleksandr Amzin published an article titled “Slopwork without borders,” which denounced the reliability of the report’s factual data and called the section on blogger persecution its “only serious part.” Meanwhile, in an interview with Radio Liberty blogger and journalist Oleg Kozyrev agreed with the report. “We live in a situation when any blogger can become part of a criminal case,” he said.
Could this mean that the government has indeed taken the reigns of control over the Internet into its own hands? “For the moment, the impact of these online mobilizations on the Russian society is still relatively limited,” the conclusion of the report said. “The authorities’ attitude in the months to come will determine if [these acts] are, or are not, indicative of a deliberate attempt to gain complete control of the new media.” Sidorenko put it in simpler terms: “Look at China or Turkmenistan, for instance. Luckily, we have a long way to go.”
