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NEW RUSSIAN ANTI-TERRORISM LAW TIGHTENS GRIP ON MEDIA
Amidst the fallout from last week's hostage crisis in Moscow, which killed 117 people, the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) are calling attention to growing
restrictions on Russian media, including a new law restricting the media from reporting on anti-terrorist operations and
publishing statements by terrorist groups.
CPJ notes that during the hostage crisis, authorities pressured at least three media outlets to remove content related
to the events. Radio station, Ekho Moskvy, was warned by the Media Ministry not to broadcast statements by Chechen
rebels after it aired an interview with one of the hostage-takers on 24 October. The ministry then ordered the shutting
down of Ekhoh Moskvy's website but withdrew after the radio station removed the text of the interview from its site, CPJ
and RSF report.
The Media Ministry also shut down television station Moskoviya for a day, accusing it of promoting terrorism, and
reprimanded the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, after it published a photograph of the body of the dead woman killed on 23
October by the hostage-takers.
The moves came shortly after Russia's parliament, the State Duma, passed a new law giving the government more power to
restrict media coverage of anti-terrorist operations and terrorists' activities. The "Law on Battling Propaganda of
Terrorism in Mass Media" prohibits the media from printing or broadcasting information that justifies extremist
activities, justifies resistance to counter-terrorist operations, hinders counter-terrorist operations, and reveals
anti-terrorist tactics, says CPJ.
Although the bill needs the approval of the upper house of parliament and President Vladimir Putin's signature before it
becomes law, the government's actions during the hostage are based on the proposed law, CPJ says.
The law is likely to further restrict news coverage of the military conflict in Chechnya, which the Russian government
calls a "counter-terrorist operation," reports The Guardian. Russian authorities already exercise severe restrictions on
journalists reporting in Chechnya. Those brave enough to report on human-rights violations committed by the Russian
military, including Novaya Gazeta's Anna Politkovskaya, have been arrested and received death threats.
Visit these links: - CPJ Report on Russia: http://www.cpj.org/news/2002/Russia25oct02na.html - CPJ Interview with Anna
Politkovskaya: http://www.cpj.org/news/2001/Russia13nov01na.html - Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/russia/chechnya/ - RSF 2002 Report on Russia:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=1799=OK - The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2112727,00.html
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