Schoolteacher censored: Tomás Ó Dulaing (picture: Lucan Gazette)

Dublin’s Evening Herald brings us this story of Tommy Morris, and adviser to Derek Keating, a TD (member of parliament) for the government party, Fine Gael.

Keating has been involved in a dispute with a local school principal, Tomás Ó Dulaing, after the TD apparently claimed credit for a school building extension in Lucan, a neighbourhood in Keating’s Dublin Mid-West constituency.

Local freesheet The Lucan Gazette ran a front-page story last week in which Ó Dulaing accused Keating of “gross cynical opportunism” in taking credit for the work. In an open letter, the principal attacked Keating, saying: “Neither did anybody from our board of management or staff contact you or seek your assistance in relation to the extension. You had absolutely nothing to do with this development, and yet you distribute a leaflet in the Lucan area claiming to have ‘initiated, led and delivered’ this extension.”

How to respond to this? Keating’s aide Morris took Route 1, entering a Centra minimarket in Lucan and grabbing a bundle of Gazettes before throwing them in a rubbish bin nearby.

Mr Keating was, needless to say, shocked (shocked!) by his aide’s hands-on censorship technique, telling the Herald:

“I am shocked and disappointed at Tommy’s actions, which I had no knowledge of. I cannot believe what he did and I certainly did not direct him to do so.

“But Tommy was upset when he saw the article and must have had a rush of blood to the head. We don’t believe the article was fair at all to me.

“Tommy was out in the area taking down posters depicting me as an abortionist when he entered the shop and saw the papers.

“This publication is a free sheet so there is no question of Tommy breaking the law.”

To be fair to Mr Morris, he was already out on a mission pulling down posters critical of his boss: Would a few local papers really make any difference?

(h/t Niamh Puirseil)

UPDATE: “Derek Bleating” on Twitter (we suspect not his real name), points out that the Lucan Echo had the same front page story. But as you have to pay for the Echo, Morris seems to have left it unmolested. Strongest case for paying for content yet made?

Padraig Reidy is senior writer for Index on Censorship. @mePadraigReidy

The post Sometimes censorship is complicated, and sometimes it’s really simple appeared first on Index on Censorship.

– Journalist and human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine From the anthology, Fleeting Words, edited by Naziha Rjiba, published in cooperation with PEN Tunisia and Atlas Publications, with the support of Index on Censorship and IFEX.

Photo: fbioche / Demotix

During the next few months, the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) will present its final draft of Tunisia’s new constitution, a document that has seen many changes of emphasis since the NCA was founded in November 2011. A second draft in December 2012 offered new guarantees for free speech rights and barred prior censorship. Yet the ill-defined and repressive legal framework created by former President Zein el-Abidine Ben Ali to silence dissident voices is still in place, and free speech advocates remain concerned over Islamist vows to criminalise blasphemy.

Although Ben Ali’s autocratic rule ended almost two years ago, his legacy remains on the books. Ben Ali-era laws represent a serious threat to free speech. The public prosecutor’s office used Article 121 (3) of the Tunisian Penal Code to charge Nessma TV boss Nabil Karoui for broadcasting the animated film Persepolis and newspaper director Nasreddine Ben Saida, the publisher of the Arabic-language daily Attounissia, for publishing a photo of German-Tunisian football player Sami Khedira embracing a naked model.

The article prohibits the distribution of publications “liable to cause harm to the public order or public morals”. Supporters of free expression in Tunisia will have to wait until a third and final draft of the constitution, due in Spring 2013, to see if the NCA can find the will to amend or abolish this article and other anti-free speech laws, journalists, bloggers and artists risk facing more “public disorder” and “morality” charges.

The revolution raised urgent need to fundamentally reform the media sector in Tunisia and accordingly the interim government prepared new, progressive, if imperfect, media legislation in 2011 to replace the restrictive laws inherited from the Ben Ali regime. However the proposed legal guarantees were stonewalled by the government of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, Ennahda’s Secretary General.

Decree-law 116 requires the creation of an independent high authority to regulate broadcast media. But this decree has been resisted by the interim government which instead has continued to make its own political appointments to senior media management posts.
To date the government has declined to implement the decree, or a parallel decree-law, 115-2011, on the print media. Months after the ousting of Ben Ali, distrust remains deep in the media sector, while resistance to reform prevails.

“The failure to abide by decrees passed under the former transitional government and run by the official gazette thus far is alarming,” said Kamel Labidi, a veteran journalist and human rights defender, who led the National Authority to Reform Information and Communication (INRIC), an independent body tasked with reforming the media sector after the revolution.

“It is shocking to see the government inclined to yield to pressure groups which were close to the country’s fugitive dictator and unwilling to conform to international standards for media broadcasting regulation.”

Attacks on the media and the rise of ‘Sacred Values’

Over 2012, street attacks on free speech in the name of religion increased dramatically, a trend that can only increase, given the apparent indifference of police and level of impunity enjoyed by the attackers. Tunisia’s current government routinely expresses condemnation of violence and its commitment to free speech. Yet the seriousness of that commitment is constantly questioned as officials turn a blind eye to the perpetrators and blame the victims.

Police brutality against journalists did not take long to resume after the fall of the regime either. As early as May 2011, journalists, bloggers and photographers were targeted while covering demonstrations and this pattern of abuse by law enforcement has continued to this date. On 24 March, Al-Jazeera journalist Lotfi Hajji was attacked while reporting from a meeting organised by supporters of the former Interim Prime Minister Béji Caid Essebsi.

Many observers saw the April 2012 statement by Ennahda leader Ghannouchi raising the possibility of “taking radical measures in the news media domain including, possibly, privatising the public media,” as giving tacit sympathy to the violent anti-media protests.

When Islamist ‘salafist’ extremists attacked the Tunis Printemps des Arts (Spring of Arts), a modern contemporary art fair in June, Tunisian Minister of Culture, Mehdi Mabrouk, was quicker to condemn the targeted artists before the attackers and vowed to take legal action against the fair’s organisers.

Previously three Islamists accompanied by a bailiff and a lawyer had toured the Palais El-Abdellia gallery and demanded that two artworks they deemed “un-Islamic” be taken down. It was the last day of the ten day event, but after the gallery closed the salafists came back in larger numbers, broke in and destroyed a number of artworks.

Two exhibitors were charged: Nadia Jelassi for her sculpture depicting a veiled woman surrounded by a pile of rocks and Ben Slama over a work showing a line of ants streaming out of a child’s schoolbag to spell ‘Allah’. Prosecutors used Article 121.3 of the Tunisian penal code which makes it an offence to ‘distribute, offer for sale, publicly display, or possess, with the intent to distribute, sell, display for the purpose of propaganda, tracts, bulletins, and fliers, whether of foreign origin or not, that are liable to cause harm to the public order or public morals’.

Bloggers Ghazi Ben Mohamed Beji and Jaber Ben Abdallah Majri were also jailed under Article 121.3 for publishing online satirical writings about Islam. Majri was detained and tried, while Beji, who fled to Europe, was convicted in absentia. During an appeals hearing on 25 June 2012, the court upheld Majri’s prison sentence, while Beji’s case was not heard on appeal.

The attacks echoed violence in the preceding year, when protesters forced their way into the Afrikart Cinema in downtown Tunis in June 2011 to protest its screening of a documentary entitled Laïcité Inshallah (“Secularism, if God wills”). And in April 2011, an unknown assailant hit film director Nouri Bouzid with a metal bar, shortly after he told a Tunisian radio station that he supported a secular constitution for Tunisia and that his next film would defend civil liberties and criticised religious fundamentalism.

Other attacks carried out by Salafists have targeted artists, including a theatre group performing on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis in March and academics, notably from Manouba University in north-eastern Tunisia, and journalists as well as media personnel and institutions. The targets included Nessma TV after the showing of Persepolis, for which station boss Karoui was later arrested, tried and fined. Karoui’s home was also firebombed. The film had earlier appeared in Tunisian cinemas with few complaints but when broadcast in October it was dubbed into a Tunisian Arabic dialect, which enraged the Salafists.

The increasing violence surrounding artistic and cultural expression deemed ‘blasphemous’ came as the ruling Islamist Ennahda Movement, which controls 40 per cent of the NCA’s seats, vowed to “legally protect the sacred” and filed a blasphemy bill. Though Ennahda later agreed in principle to drop an anti-blasphemy clause from the draft constitution after negotiations with the other two parties in the ruling coalition, the Congress for the Republic and the Democratic Forum for Work and Liberties, it is by not likely that Islamists will give up their efforts to seek legal authority to criminally ‘punish’ the blasphemous.

The discussion surrounding the proposed amendment of Tunisia’s Penal Code to criminalise violations of sacred values, would impose broad restrictions on freedom of expression far beyond that permitted under international conventions in particular by seeking to protect “sacred values” and “symbols” that do not enjoy their protection.

The draft was vague, according to an Article 19 study, leaving the law, if adopted, open to overly broad interpretation and possible abuse. “What are sacred values?” asked the organisation. “Who determines them and how? What constitutes a violation?” The proposed law also ran counter to the view of UN human rights bodies that laws criminalising defamation of religions and protection of symbols and beliefs contradict rights to freedom of expression. The UN also concluded such laws can be counter-productive in that they are prone to abuse, sometimes at the expense of the religious minorities that they purport to protect.

State attempts to influence the media condemned

Meanwhile, the government continued to appoint the directors of major public media unilaterally, without consulting media professionals, and in the absence of transparent employment processes. The appointments brought the objectivity of the process and the appointees’ own merit and competence into question.

Amidst strong protest, the government had made its own choice of staff to lead the national news agency TAP, Tunisian TV and the country’s leading press house, Société nouvelle d’impression, de presse et d’édition (SNIPE) on 7 January 2012. Though most of these appointments were later revoked after protests organised by the National Union for Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), the trick was repeated in July and August with the appointment of new directors of public radio and a new CEO of Tunisian Television.

On August 21, the government fired Samari Kamel, a well-known human rights activist, as director-general of the influential newspaper group Dar Assabah. He was replaced by Lotfi Touati, a former regime-era police commissioner and government sympathiser. In 2009, Touati was identified as the prime architect of a Ben Ali regime inspired takeover of the leadership of the country’s National Union of Journalists. The Dar Assabah media group is the oldest media house in the country, established in 1951, and Touati’s appointment stirred much controversy.

The SNTJ denounced the government’s move. And Labidi said the government had made the appointments, not based on any media experience or criteria, but because of their alignment with the ruling Ennahda party.

Days after his appointment, Touati withdrew an article due to be published one of the group’s dailies that was critical of his approach. He also fired one of the three top editors at the Arabic-language daily Assabah and published a short list of people authorised to write editorials, the reports said. The chairman of the board of Dar Assabah, Mustapha Ben Letaief and another board member, Fethi Sellaouti both resigned in protest and on September 11, Dar Assabah staff went on strike to protest his appointment.

Touati continued to draw controversy. On September 13 his speeding car injured one of his own reporters, Khalil Hannachi, as he waited outside the group offices to interview him. The journalist lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital with head and ear injuries.

In general the state of both printing and distribution of independent newspapers is still highly problematic. While many new titles emerged when restrictions were lifted in 2011, few were sustainable, as no proactive policy promoting the emergence of a professional, free, independent and pluralistic press was put in place.

Newspapers also have been facing turmoil and hardships, with individuals close to the old regime still active in the industry. “Rather than transform the public media into free, independent and professional institutions after it had served for years as merely a tool in the hands of the Ben Ali regime, the government’s appointments have honoured Ben Ali’s men in the media sector by awarding them key posts in the public service media,” journalist Fahem Boukadous of the Tunisian Centre for Freedom of the Press (CTPJ) told mission members.

“Many have perceived these appointments as the authority’s attempt to instate individuals it can control in its effort to domesticate the media.” Also the allocation of institutional and public service advertising between media still lacks transparency despite the winding down of the Tunisian External Communication Agency (ATCE), which had used its power of advertising budget patronage to bring the Tunisian media to heel during the Ben Ali era.
Reforming the regulation of Tunisian media

Observers both inside and outside Tunisia have concluded that proposals for the regulation of the country’s media do not meet international standards. Draft clauses in the original text of the new constitution called for the establishment of an “independent media regulatory body,” but chosen by the National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

This raised fears that the government’s past bad practice in appointing staff and pressurising the media would simply be enshrined by the new body. All regulatory powers over the media, including the governing bodies of public media, must have guaranteed independence.

In frustration at the practices of government Labidi and his fellow members of INRIC decided to end its activities on 4 July, having waited in vain for a response from the government since 30 April, when it released its final report and recommendations. A commission of human rights experts on the independent Committee for the Achievement of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition (HIROR) followed suit on 24 August.

Another reason for Labidi’s resignation was a draft amendment proposed by a minor political party to the Decree 115-2011, designed to act as a new press code. The code, which is supposed to ensure freedom of press, has been approved by parliament but not yet implemented. The proposed amendments would introduce jail time for insulting sacred icons and public figures, among other restrictions.

Meanwhile, the Internet remains partly free in practice but the repressive legal framework governing web usage under Ben Ali remains. In May the Minister for Human Rights and Transitional Justice Samir Dilou told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that “the Internet was a partner in the revolution so the government would not punish it.” The reality has been a little less straightforward.

The Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), the web censor under Ben Ali, was ordered by a military tribunal in 2011 to filter five Facebook pages criticising the army. In early 2012, despite the objections of the new ATI leadership, there were calls for a blanket ban on access to pornographic websites, eventually overruled by Tunisia’s highest court.

The existing 1997 Telecommunications Decree and ‘Internet regulations’, make Internet Service Providers (ISPs) liable for third-party content without exceptions – in breach of international conventions. They also require ISPs to monitor and take down content considered contrary to public order and ‘good morals’.

ISPs were still required to submit a list of subscribers on a monthly basis and ban use of encryption tools without prior state approval. The proposed press code – with its powers to bring criminal defamation charges and overly broad penalties for ‘hate speech’ – can be applied to online publishers as well. However, as the cases of bloggers Ghazi Ben Mohamed Beji and Jaber Ben Abdallah Majri illustrated, ordinary public order law from the Ben Ali era can suffice to silence critical opinion.

Under the former regime, ATI used to use online censorship, but in an interview with ATI CEO Moez Chakchouk, he said the technology, installed in 2006, had not been extended or updated since 2011 and had been essentially abandoned in the face of a 50% increase in online traffic in Tunisia during that year.

“If the state wants to draw red lines for net freedom, it should first establish an independent authority to regulate the internet. Internet legislation should not be drafted without a regulation authority that creates balance, between public and individual interests. The state has the right to protect and eliminate defamation, but citizens have the right to freely express themselves. So we need balance, and if the government cannot create such balance, a conflict of interests will occur.”

Constitutional reform

The Tunisian National Constituent Assembly (NCA) is currently preparing a third version of the draft constitution, expected in the spring of 2013. The current version, published at the end of 2012 carries several articles that threaten human rights in general, raise questions about the Tunisia’s commitment to international conventions long ratified by the country and lack of sufficient guarantees for the independence of the judiciary. It also carries some improvements, such as the removal of articles that threatened freedom of expression by criminalizing “normalization” with Israel and clearer language to preserve equal rights for women in Tunisia.

The draft lacks – and would significantly benefit from – a defined section to serve as a Bill of Rights, and placed at the heart of the new Constitution. The constitution must provide a clear right for people to hold opinions and that right should not be subject to any restrictions.

The bill should define freedom of expression broadly and including the historic international right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, while ensuring that this guarantee covers all types of expression and all modes of communication. The only legitimate restrictions on free expression must be determined by law and are necessary only when respecting the rights or reputations of others and for the protection of national security, public order or public health.

The constitution also should provide a legal mechanism to ensure that there is a right to freedom of information and there must be clear guarantees for freedom of religion for all people.

The constitution draft also fails to address the worst abuses of the Ben Ali regime in its relations with the judiciary. The guarantees for the independence of the judiciary are too limited; there is lack of clarity over the right for judges’ security of tenure and too much government authority over the definition of the conditions under which a judge can be dismissed.

An independent judiciary is key to institutionalising free expression in Tunisia and preventing people from being harassed or jailed for exercising their right to free expression,” said Riadh Guerfali, a co-founder of the participatory website Nawaat, a partner of Index on Censorship. “Ending impunity for those who attack free expression is critical as well.”

Some observers have raised questions about Article 15, which suggest that international conventions that Tunisia has ratified are only compulsory if they do not “contravene the constitution” in an unspecified way.

Under the Vienna Convention, when an international treaty had been ratified or approved it will become binding in domestic law. But the language as it stands may tempt judges and legislators to disregard these treaties on the pretext that they contradict the new constitution, Human Rights Watch said.

The importance of an independent judiciary was underlined by Guerfali, himself a lawyer. “Beyond formal guarantees of the right to freedom of expression and information in the Constitution and international instruments, what is key in today’s democracies is the case law.

“Indeed, in front of notions as vague as public morals, national security and public order, precedents established over decades have enabled the protection of fundamental rights. Yet, in Tunisia, such positive case law is lacking. There is no doubt that legal instruments should be set to prevent vague notions to undermine otherwise protected fundamental rights, including that to freedom of expression.”

– Reported by Rohan Jayasekera, Ghias Aljundi and Yousef Ahmed

World Press Freedom Day

European Union: Is the European Union faltering on media freedom?
Egypt: Post-revolution media vibrant but partisan
Brazil: Press confronts old foes and new violence

The post Tunisia’s press faces repressive laws, uncertain future appeared first on Index on Censorship.

In March the Russian authorities turned their attentions to online social networks — and the Kremlin proved adept at getting major international companies to comply with its directives: on 15 March Twitter blocked an account that promoted drugs and on 29 March Facebook took down a page called “Suicide School” rather than see its entire network blacklisted.

On 25 March, reports surfaced that the ministry of Communications and Mass Media planned to transfer maintenance of the Registry of Banned Sites from communications regulator Roskomnadzor to a third party selected by Roskomnadzor. The ministry proposed changes to the registry; to maintain website owners’ information on the register but deny sites owners — as well as hosting and Internet providers — access to the entire registry. Internet service providers will also be obliged to restore access to sites that have been removed from the register within 24 hours.

Education and schools

ISPs win small victory on child protection

Reports from 1 March stated that Vladimir Putin agreed a change to the Russian administrative code exempting internet service providers from responsibility for preventing availability to children of harmful materials from publicly accessible internet services. Responsibility now rests with all “persons who provide access to information distributed via telecommunication networks in places accessible to children” rather than ISPs.

Saratov demands better filtering

On 13 March the Saratov regional prosecutor reported that the Bazarno-Karabulaksky district prosecutor had discovered that pornographic websites were accessible from computers in the village school of Alekseevka. Similar violations were discovered in schools of Maksimovka, Vyazovka and Sukhoi Karabulak. The schools were told to upgrade their content filtering.

Tyva schools ordered to improve content filtering

On 27 March it was reported that the Tandinsky district court in the Tyva Republic had accepted a district prosecutor’s demand that Kochetovo village school enhance its content filtering. An inspection had found that students could access websites providing instructions on manufacturing smoking blends and explosives, as well as publications included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Neryungri prosecutor demands filtering

It was reported on 27 March that the Neryungri prosecutor had discovered that computers in several schools and a college allowed access to undesirable websites. Educational managers were fined for their negligence and content filters are currently being installed.

Pskov clamps down on porn

On 29 March it was reported that the Dnovsky district prosecutor in Pskov had discovered that students in a secondary school in the town of Dno were able to freely access pornographic websites and sites promoting the use of illegal drugs. The school was told to stop allowing such access.

Bashkortostan targets cannabis site

The Meleuzovsky prosecutor in Bashkortostan discovered that banned websites were accessible in several Meleuz educational institutions. Students in one school could access a website containing information on manufacturing hashish. The prosecutor demanded that the schools restrict access.

Extremism

Extremism “discovered in burger bar”

On 28 February an inspection by the counter-propaganda department of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic ministry of the interior’s anti-extremism unit found an extremist website on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, made publicly accessible from a computer in the Momento Burger internet cafe in Cherkessk. The case is now being considered by the local prosecutor.

Syktyvkar assault on ‘extremist materials’

It was reported on 15 March that the Syktyvkar city court had accepted its prosecutor’s writ demanding that access to 20 sites be restricted by the ISP ParmaTel for featuring extremist materials.

Vologda blocks Islamist website

On 18 March it was reported that the Sokolsky prosecutor had issued a request to an ISP to block access to radical Islamist websites including an article included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Samara clamps down

On 19 March the Kirovsky district court of Samara granted the prosecutor’s office claim against an Internet provider for providing access to a website that contained the book The Gardens of the Righteous by Imam Abu Zakaria Mohiuddin Yahya. The book is included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Moscow prosecutor restricts access

On 19 March it was reported that Gagarinsky prosecutor in in Moscow had filed a writ with Gagarinsky district court against the ISP Niko-2001, demanding restrictions on access to five websites containing publications on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. The ISP complied and the case was dropped.

Nazis suppressed in Lipetsk

Reports from 19 March stated that the Sovetsky district prosecutor in Lipetsk had successfully demanded that the White Resistance (Beloie Soprotivleniie) website be recognised as extremist because it contained Aryan supremacy propaganda, including Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Ulyanovsk goes for Islamists

On 21 March the Ulyanovsk regional prosecutor stated that the Inzensky district prosecutor had found a number of publicly accessible websites containing extremist materials, including the Letter of the Autonomous Mujahideen Group of Vilayata KBK IK, which is on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. The district prosecutor has served a writ against the local branch of the ISP Rostelekom demanding that access be blocked.

Saratov upholds ban

On 22 March it was reported that the civil law panel of the Saratov regionial court had upheld a lower court’s decision to order the ISPs COMSTAR-Regions and Altura to restrict access to websites containing extremist materials.

Saratov prosecutor sues against hatred

On 27 March the Saratov regional prosecutor was reported to have filed eight writs against the ISP COMSTAR-Regiony and the regional branch of the ISP Rostelekom, demanding restrictions on access to websites containing references to extremist activity and materials aimed at inciting hatred or enmity.

Poem targeted in Tambov

On 27 March it was reported that the Michurinsk city prosecutor in Tambov had demanded that the ISP Telesputnik restrict access to a web page containing a poem included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. The poem was declared extremist by a city court in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 2007.

Chelyabinsk restricts nationalist site

On 28 March the Chelyabinsk regional prosecutor announced that the Leninsky district prosecutor in Magnitogorsk had filed seven writs demanding that ISPs restrict access to a right-wing website publishing extremist materials — among them the the article Open Questions of Russian Nationalism.

Sverdlovsk targets Islamists

On 28 March the Sverdlovsk regional prosecutor announced that the Kamensk-Uralsky prosecutor had filed several writs against the ISPs Kamensk-Telekom and Konveks-Kamensk and the regional branch of Rostelekom demanding restrictions on access to websites containing materials on the Federal List of Extremist Materials including the tract Adhering to the Sunnah of the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon Him).

Bryansk ISP gets court order

On 28 March it was announced that the Bryansk regional court had granted the request of the Volodarsky district prosecutor to restrict access to websites containing extremist materials. The Sovetsky district court last year rejected the request but was overturned on appeal.

Ivanovo prosecutor wants explosives ban

On 28 March the Ivanovo regional prosecutor reported that the Teikovsky prosecutor had identified publicly accessible websites that contain information about manufacturing explosives. Writs demanding restriction of access to the websites were subsequently issued.

Kirov kills fascist website

On 28 March the Kirov regional prosecutor reported that a publicly accessible website offering items with fascist symbols for sale was identified during an audit. The Kirov city prosecutor demanded that the ISP MTC block access and the court complied.

Gambling and online casinos

‘No more gambling’ in Chapayevsk

On 6 March the Samara regional prosecutor declared that the Lenin district court of Samara had accepted 19 complaints by the Chapayevsk town prosecutor about inadequate restrictions on access to gambling websites.

Ulyanovsk restricts pyramid schemes

On 14 March it was reported that the Novomalyklinsky district prosecutor’s office of the Ulyanovsk region had issued writs against the local branch of the ISP Rostelekom demanding restrictions on access to websites run by the pyramid-scheme impresario Sergey Mavrodi.

Kurgan stops the betting

On 15 March it was reported that the Dalmatovsky district prosecutor had identified 25 gambling websites. The prosecutor demanded that the ISP Rus block the sites, and it agreed.

Online gambling halted in Penza

On 15 March the Penza regional prosecutor reported that the Lenin district prosecutor had identified 13 online casino websites. The prosecutor filed a writ against the ISP Rostelekom demanding that access be restricted, which was granted.

Orenburg rules out casinos

On 15 March it was reported that the Novotroitsk town court in the Orenburg region had agreed to a  prosecutor’s demands for restrictions on access to online casino sites. The ISP Ass-Com blocked more than 20 websites voluntarily.

Omsk bars access to gambling

On 20 March the Leninsky district prosecutor’s office in Omsk sued the ISP Sakhalin in the Leninsky district court, demanding restrictions on access to pyramid-scheme websites.

Pskov stops the gamblers

On 21 March it was reported that the Pskov regional prosecutor had found 85 websites with gambling-related information and demanded access restrictions for the sites. After a long legal wrangle, the local branch of the ISP Rostelecom was ordered to restrict access.

Khanty-Mansiysk closes online bookies

On 22 March the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous district prosecutor’s office reported that the Nyagan Town prosecutor had identified several gambling websites. Based on the results of the inspection, the prosecutor filed a lawsuit against the local Rostelekom branch demanding that access to the websites be restricted. The Khanty-Mansiysk district court has granted the petition in full.

Perm blocks gambling access

On 26 March the Perm regional prosecutor reported that pyramid-scheme websites had been found in the public domain in Chernushinsky district. The district prosecutor issued a writ demanding that the local ISP restrict access to these sites, which was accepted by the district court.

Khanty-Mansiysk clamps down

On 26 March it was reported that the appeal court in the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district had accepted demands from local prosecutors that pyramid-scheme websites be blocked.

Social networks

Twitter closes account and deleted Tweets

On 15 March it became known that in the two preceding weeks Twitter had blocked access to five tweets and closed one user account upon request from Roskomnadzor because its owner advertised the sales of illegal drugs. Three Tweets were blocked for promoting suicide and two more for assisting in drug distribution. The deleted user’s account had advertised a drug distribution network, and was reported to Roskomnadzor by Twitter after its removal.

ISP blocks social networks in Ryazan and Orel

On 28 March it was reported that the ISP Rostelekom had blocked the Odnoklassniki and VKontakte social networks in the Ryazan and Orel regions and had blocked access to YouTube in Orel and Livejournal in Ryazan. The websites were included on the Registry of Banned Sites, but the block was later lifted.

Roskomnadzor warns Facebook

On 28 March it was reported that the federal communications agency Roskomnadzor notified Facebook that it would be blocked unless it removed a page called “Suicide school”, containing (mostly humurous) information about suicide. The page was added to Russia’s internet blacklist and was taken down by the social networking site.

Drugs and pornography

Samara blocks drug-dealing sites

On 12 March it was reported that the Novokuibyshevsk city court in Samara region had demanded that local ISPs MIRS, Next Tell-Samara, Progress IT and TesComVolga restrict access to 25 websites that offered narcotics and psychedelic substances for sale. The websites were identified during an audit conducted by the FSB Department of Samara Region.

Sverdlovsk prosecutor demands drugs action

Reports from 12 March stated that the Sverdlovsk regional prosecutor had filed eight writs against the local branch of the ISP Rostelekom,  demanding restrictions on access to the websites containing material encouraging the use of illegal drugs.

Vladimir restricts access to porn and drugs

On 18 March the Vladimir regional prosecutor declared that the Kolchuginsky interdistrict prosecutor had  found websites containing pornographic materials, information about drug manufacturing and articles about suicide methods, made publicly accessible from a computer installed in the Kolchugino town post office. The prosecutor issued a writ against against a local branch of the ISP Rostelekom demanding that access be restricted, to which the ISP agreed.

Samara prosecutor demands porn block

On 19 March it was reported that the Novokuibyshevsk city prosecutor had filed six writs to block websites featuring child pornography. The lawsuits are pending.

Khabarovsk court upholds ISP porn decision

On 21 March it was reported that the Khabarovsk regional court had upheld the decision of the Centralny district court in October 2012 against the local branch of the ISP Rostelekom, restricting access to two websites with pornographic content.

And the rest…

Website blocked for suicide book

On 27 March it was reported that a book by Perm psychotherapist Yuri Vagin, Aesthetics of Suicide (Estetika samoubiystva) had been categorised as extremist. The federal communications agency Roskomnadzor included the website of the Perm psychoanalytic society, which published the book, on the Registry of Banned Sites.

Orthodox parish registered as dangerous

On 27 March it was reported that Roskomnadzor had included the website of Svyato-Vvedensky parish of Rostov on the Register of Banned Sites. As of 30 March, a message “The requested page could not be found” could be seen when attempting to access the site.

Websites warned over Pussy Riot

On 5 March Roskomnadzor reported that it had issued warnings in late February 2013 to the editorial boards of Argumenty i Fakty newspaper and the Polit.ru online news service for republishing a video clip by the Pussy Riot punk collective. The video had been previously been defined by a court as extremist.

Popular writers blog added to banned list

On 19 March Roskomnadzor added to the Register of Banned Sites a page from the online blog of popular writer Leonid Kaganov that featured the lyrics to a satirical song from a 1990s TV show — supposedly for encouraging suicide. A blog post in which Kaganov commented on this ban was then added to the register — and then so was his entire blog, even though, on the request of Roskomnadzor, Kaganov removed the contentious lyrics from his blog.

Sakhalin ISP told to stop giving bribery tips

On 26 March the Sakhalin regional court reversed a previous Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city court decision not to ban the ISP Rostelekom from allowing access to a website containing information about giving bribes. The ISP must now restrict access to the site.

Andrei Soldatov is a Russian journalist, and together with Irina Borogan, co-founder of the Agentura.Ru website. Last year, Soldatov and Borogan co-authored The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (PublicAffairs)

The post What Russia censored in March appeared first on Index on Censorship.

Although some denied the reports, the merge was announced during the 2013 session of China’s parliament, with the motion passed in March.

Zhang Jin, deputy editor at  technology publisher Popular Science Press, told state news agency Xinhua:  

Over the last 30 years of the opening up and reform period, both GAPP and SARFT have developed tremendously, but with this development of industry and flourishing of culture, many new problems have risen, for example the lockdown of departments, and individual management by each media type of themselves, and approval [for content] department by department.

GAPP and SARFT didn’t want, under any under circumstances, to deal with each other. GAPP only paid attention to newspapers and print media and not broadcast media, and SARFT doesn’t get the support of the print media, making the merging of industries difficult.

The new body replacing SARFT and GAPP — unofficially translated as the General Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film and Television — will be responsible for regulating and overseeing print media, radio, film, television, as well as the internet. It will also handle rights and contents.

SARFT is the body that censors films — recently facing controversy for cutting science fiction film Cloud Atlas by 40 minutes. GAPP also came under fire earlier this year for overseeing the censoring of newspaper Southern Weekly New Year’s editorial. The Guangdong provincial propaganda chief rewrote the paper’s heading and editorial without consulting editorial staff, forcing the reform-orientated paper to run a piece toeing the official Party line.

While both SARFT and GAPP monitored the internet, the specifics of their responsibilities were never clear — but now new and uniform regulations have been revealed.

The China Press and Publishing Journal reported that there will be three new rules for internet use under the new body: use of news reports from abroad on websites will be forbidden without permission; editorial staff must not use the Internet for illegal content; and the microblog accounts of news media must be supervised, and an account holder appointed.

Whether the merge will create or lessen the chaos surrounding content control still remains to be seen.

The post China’s two main censorship bodies to merge appeared first on Index on Censorship.

In the past few years, criminal prosecution of artists and new laws have made it clear for those who criticise the Kremlin or Russian Orthodox Church in their creative work, will face consequences for portraying either of these institutions negatively.

A Russian artist came under fire for depicting members of Pussy Riot as religious icons

Just last week, the State Duma passed two controversial laws in the first hearing. One forbids obscene language in movies, books, TV, and radio during mass public events. The other stipulates criminal punishment — including five years in prison — for “insulting believers’ feelings”. Both laws, as far as human rights activists are concerned, limit artists’ freedom of expression, and encourage self-censorship.

Index spoke to three notable artists to find out how the art community deals with self-censorship, and the ever-increasing restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia.

Artyom Loskutov, an artist from Novosibirsk, is famous for holding “monstrations” — flash mobs with absurd slogans like “Tanya, don’t cry” and “Who’s there?”. In 2009, he was arrested on drug possession charges, but he claims that the marijuana was planted on him by police. A blood test proved that he had not taken any drugs, and his fingerprints were not found on the package. Three years on, he faced three administrative cases, and paid a 1000 rouble fine for creating icon-like images of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina and placing them on billboards. He was accused of insulting believers. He is currently appealing the court ruling in the European Court of Human Rights.

The artist told Index that the cases against him are acts of censorship, but vows to remain defiant and continue with his work:

The icons idea concerned two kinds of mothers: one mother is honoured as a saint, the two others — Tolokonnikova and Alekhina — were thrown in prison. The authorities, including the court, are becoming more insane, and one wouldn’t want to cause persecutions. But I can’t say that  given that, I refuse to implement any of my plots. In the 90s my generation felt that we had nothing, except free speech, and all the 2000s attempts to take it away meet nothing but incomprehension

In 2010, The prosecutor’s office  in Moscow’s Bassmany district examined the works of Moscow-based artist Lena Hades,  “Chimera of Mysterious Russian Soul” and “Welcome to Russia”. Russian nationalists appealed to the authorities claiming these paintings insult Russians. The case did not go to court, but Hades told Index that Russian galleries feared exhibiting her paintings after the incident.

“Galleries are afraid of financial sanctions,” Hades says, “Although 95 per cent of my paintings are about philosophy rather than about social events, they are only exhibited in Tretyakov Gallery and Moscow Museum of Modern Art”.

Despite reduced chances of her work being exhibited, Hades still painted Pussy Riot’s members, and went on a 25-day hunger strike against their prosecution. The artist is no fan of self-censorship, even if it comes at a cost. According to her, no artist that responds to reality can accept self-censorship:

This is not courage, this is aristocratic luxury of doing what you want. Self-censorship is more harmful for a modern Russian artist than censorship. He is frightened of scaring away galleries and buyers and prefers to paint landscapes with cows — anything far enough from real social life

Artist Boris Zhutovsky has a long-standing relationship with censorship. In 1962, he was slammed by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who banned work by Zhutovsky and his colleagues. For several years following the incident, the artist faced difficulties in finding employment, and his work was not exhibited in the USSR.

Zhutovsky continues to court controversy today: in the past few years he has painted the trials of Russia’s most well-known political prisoners, businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who were first convicted in 2005. He explained Russia’s culture of self-censorship to Index:

Self-censorship is based on fear, and the amplitude of this fear has changed throughout my life. In the times of Stalin, it was the fear of the Gulag and execution. In the times of Khruschev it was the fear of loosing a job or a country – a person could be forced to leave the Soviet Union. After Perestroika the fear shrank, and now the fear which nourishes self-censorship is the fear to anger your boss

He is optimistic that a younger generation of artists will not accept self-censorship as a standard, as the the era of Putin is far from that of Stalin, but only time will tell.

The post Self-censorship’s chill on artistic freedom in Russia appeared first on Index on Censorship.

The programme was another in the series of firsts as the space for expression in Burma opens up.

Of course, this freedom is still a work in progress. The conference had a visit from an official who asked politely how things were going, and Index was told there were a couple of undercover government agents present, who kept an eye on who was saying what.

Some of the most respected artists in the country spoke, including film-maker Min Thin Ko Ko Kyi — who produced the Art of Freedom Film Festival last year with Zarganar and Aung San Suu Kyi — poet Zeyar Lin, who represented Myanmar in Poetry Parnassus as part of the Cultural Olympiad in London, and performance artists Moe Satt, Ma Ei and Aye Ko.

Zarganar, comedian, film-maker and partner of the symposium gave the opening and closing speeches;  U Win Tin, patron of the National League for Democracy, and Min Ko Naing, a leading voice in the Generation 88 group, gave the key note speeches on the first and second days respectively.

One of the key questions the symposium asked was how the reforms had affected artists who had developed a nuanced and subtle vocabulary to circumvent censorship.  For some it is difficult to find their bearings; several poets admitted it would take time, maybe two years, to make work under such different conditions.

One speaker claimed that poets were being criticised for sounding more like journalists than poets, that the subtlety of their voice had been lost. Another said that he did not want to publish his poems that had been banned in the past because they would no longer be of the moment. Another artist, who had created hundreds of artworks in prison, said that he felt his most free when he was behind bars.

Some of the younger artists Index spoke to felt very differently about the influence of new reforms.  They welcomed the openness, the free exchange of ideas, particularly online.

A young performance artist said that her art form was now considered “sexy” and she had plenty of invitations to perform so opening up her work to new audiences.   An established poet said that poets have to be more accountable now for what they write.  Previously, when all work had to be passed by the censors, the decision about what was published was completely out of the writer’s hands.

As the first symposium of its kind in the country it was necessarily experimental and as much as anything about finding a Burmese way to have a conversation about artistic freedom in public.

Index is producing a short documentary which will be translated into English. An English language podcast is also in production.

Julia Farrington is head of arts at Index on Censorship

The post Burma’s art of transition appeared first on Index on Censorship.

Watching the comics performing so freely on stage, it was extraordinary to think this would have been impossible only two years ago, when Zarganar was facing the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. His comeback was full-on and uncompromising.

The event took place against the backdrop of heightened tensions following violent clashes from between Buddhists and Muslims in Middle Burma that left 40 dead and at least 8,000 displaced. Tensions spread to Rangoon, and eventually Burmese authorities issued a ban on public gatherings and a partial curfew in three townships surrounding Rangoon.

I was in the offices of one of the many new journals that have started up since the abolition of pre-censorship for print media when we received news of the move. Some of the journalists and activists present were relieved, having felt unrest in the city, and one of the paper’s owners said that his staff who live in areas with high Muslim populations were afraid to go home. Some were even changing the locks on their doors.

Human Rights Watch has called upon Burmese authorities to help end violence against the country’s minority Muslims, and the United Nations has warned that the violence will only endanger Burma’s new wave of reforms.

On 1 April, private dailies returned to Burma once more; but on the same day, members of the newly independent media were not invited to cover the visit of the Singaporean president.

Artist Htein Lin summarised what it is like to be in Burma at such a crucial time, saying, “This is Burma: unstable one day, stable the next.”

Julia Farrington (Head of Arts, Index on Censorship) and artist Htein Lin are in Burma to deliver a symposium on artistic freedom of expression with Zarganar and his new company HOME (House of Media and Entertainment)

The post Burma: “Unstable one day, stable the next” appeared first on Index on Censorship.

Index on Censorship spoke to journalists and proprietors in Burma during a recent mission to the country in March. The return of independent daily newspapers has not been without incident. The government refused to grant licenses for daily publication to a number of publications including the Eleven Media Group, apparently because their application lacked an official revenue stamp valued at 100 kyats ($0.12). This decision was overturned in March and the group will launch its daily newspaper “The Daily Eleven” symbolically on World Press Freedom Day on May 3 according to AP.

Previously news was published in weekly journals that reviewed news and politics and had to submit all their proofs to the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) prior to publication (hence weekly publication). According to state journal the New Light of Myanmar, the termination of the PSRD was signed off at the cabinet meeting of 24 January 2013. Though ominously, the report claimed a new “Copyrights and Registration Division” would be formed under the Information and Public Relations Department.

Index on Censorship views the licensing of newspapers as an unwarranted restriction on freedom of the media. The registration process for daily newspapers in Burma has been particularly restrictive with the application requiring a code of practice, a code of ethics and a code of conduct for the publication — even though the Press Council is working on a series of ethical codes for journalists as part of its on-going negotiations to draft a more proportionate press law.

One editor told Index he had applied for a press license on 21 February and had not yet heard of the result by 13 March. The application was over 80 pages in total and the local authorities stated the application needed to be in both Burmese and English. Journalists told Index several questions on the application for a daily newspaper license concerned the previous political activities of the applicant, which raised concerns that political considerations will be taken into account when awarding the limited number of licenses proposed.

Further advances in media freedom are expected in the coming months, with foreign journalists to be given working visas from mid-April (rather than taking the risk of a tourist visa as is the norm now) and the BBC hoping to broadcast its global news channel in Burma later this year. Reporters Without Borders has moved Burma’s ranking in its Press Freedom Index up 18 places to 151 out of 179 countries.

Yet, old habits die hard. On the first day of new daily newspapers, the government kept the independent media at arm’s length from an official state visit by the President of Singapore Tony Tan Keng Yam with only the official state media allowed into the press conference surrounding the trip. A forthcoming Index report into the state of freedom of expression in Burma will examine these trends in further detail.

The post Private daily newspapers return to Burma appeared first on Index on Censorship.

Many commentators believe that by then the bill will include amendments extending the list of conditions for blocking websites to include those containing information about homosexuality, which could be blocked without a court order. Current laws on protection of children could be similarly amended.

Duma deputy Elena Mizulina stated: “No adult has the right to impose their sexual preferences on a person under 18 years of age. Propaganda for homosexuality should be considered information inappropriate for children.” The League for Internet Safety, which is backed by the Kremlin and was behind the introduction of the register of banned websites in Russia, supports the initiative.

Schools, students, libraries and a post office

Tuva prosecutor demands school filters
On 22 February it was reported by the Ulug-Khem district prosecutor’s office of the Tuva republic that computers in a school that had been discovered in an inspection last October to allow unfettered access to extremist websites were still lacking filtering software. The computers, in a school in the town of Shagonar, allowed access to Islamist, anti-Semitic and fascist videos and books. The prosecutor demanded that the republic’s minister of education penalise the school’s principal and ensure that the school end the violations.

Stavropol attack on “harmful” advertising
On 26 February it was reported that a prosecutor’s audit of the Stavropol region in January had found that internet service providers were placing ads for pornographic materials and films featuring scenes of cruelty on school websites hosted on portals narod.ru and ukoz.ru. On 9 January, the prosecutor’s office told the head of the Stavropol city education office to cease violating legislation on the rights of minors. Ten school principals now face disciplinary action.

Restrictions on student access in Vologda
On 28 February it was reported that the Vologda city prosecutor had found websites containing extremist and pornographic materials and alcohol advertising to be accessible from computers in five schools. The prosecutor told the schools to block students’ access.

Rural school told: block “damaging” information
On 18 February it was reported that the Kalininskii district prosecutor in the Saratov region had found that computers in the Simonovka village secondary school provided access to websites “that could damage the health and moral and spiritual development of children”. The prosecutor told the school administration to cease the violations.

Library must restrict access to explosives sites
On 18 February it was reported that the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district prosecutor had found that Beloyarsk library computers provided access to websites with information on manufacturing explosives. The library was told to cease the violations and to bring charges against those responsible.

Surgut prosecutor hits at school porn
On 22 February it was reported that the Surgut district prosecutor had found that computers in the Lyaminsk high school allowed access to pornographic material. The prosecutor demanded that the school install content-filtering software to restrict students’ access to harmful websites.

Amur school instructed to block violence
On 11 February it was reported that the Bureya district prosecutor of the Amur region had found that computers in Rodionovo secondary school allowed access to sites promoting violence and brutality, drugs, pornography and anti-social behaviour. The school principal was ordered to cease the violations and bring disciplinary action against those responsible.

Kostroma post office fined
On 13 February the Kostroma region prosecutor reported that an inspection by the Mezhevsky district prosecutor had revealed that a computer in the Georgievskoe village post office allowed access to extremist materials and information on the manufacturing and use of tobacco and illegal drugs. After a court case, the post office was fined 20,000 rubles (£425).

Bashkortostan court orders school filters
On 13 February it was announced that Dyurtyuli interdistrict prosecutor in Bashkortostan had found that computers in schools provided access to websites with information on narcotics. The prosecutor demanded that the schools install filtering software and limit access to these sites, demands that were backed by a court.

School head sued on access to extremism
On 6 February it was reported that the Umetskii district prosecutor in the Tambov region had found a computer in a local high school that allowed access to extremist materials. The principal of the school was ordered to cease allowing access, and the prosecutor recommended disciplinary charges against the responsible parties.

“Students need protection” in Kineshima
On 6 February the Ivanovo regional prosecutor reported that the Kineshma prosecutor had found that computers in the city’s schools provided access to extremist materials. The schools were ordered to cease violations of anti-extremism legislation.

Salekhard school must install internet filters
On 6 February it was reported that the Salekhard city prosecutor had found that students of a secondary school were inadequately protected from harmful information: computers at the school could be used to access pornographic material, information about manufacturing explosives, and texts with foul language. The principal was ordered to install working internet filters.

Prosecutor demands protection from poetry
On 8 February it was reported that Omsukchan district prosecutor in Magadan had established that filtering software in the Omsukchan village high school was failing to prevent access to extremist materials, including Vladimir Shcherbina’s poem “Progonite zhida” (Chase Away the Jew). The school was ordered to restrict access to the extremist websites.

Extremism

Altai court orders block on 29 websites
On 25 February the Gorno-Altaisk city court upheld the demand of the Altai Republic prosecutor that the regional branch of the ISP Mobil’nye TeleSystemy limit access to 29 websites. The materials include songs on the Federal List of Extremist Materials published on 12 websites, and a book also on the list published on 17 sites. The court ordered the ISP to limit access to these materials. The decision has not yet entered into force.

Saratov prosecutor demands restrictions
On 26 February it was reported that the Leninskii district prosecutor in Saratov had identified several sites “containing public calls for extremist activities, terrorism, incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity”. The prosecutor has ordered the regional branch of the ISP MTS to restrict access to these sites by installing IP-address filtering on its routers.

Extremist sites blocked in Smolensk
On 27 February it was reported that two websites containing extremist material had been blocked in response to a demand from the Roslavl prosecutor in the Smolensk region.

Yekaterinburg authorities block sites
On 27 February the Sverdlovsk regional appeal court considered the regional prosecutor’s appeal against the decision of the Upper Iset Yekaterinburg district court to dismiss the request of Zheleznodorozhnyi district prosecutor in Ekaterinburg to block access to four extremist websites. The appeal court overturned the original decision and ordered the ISP Telnet Service to restrict access to websites on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Omsk oppositionist added to register
On 27 February it was reported the administration of LiveJournal.com had blocked the account of Mikhail Yakovlev, the Omsk opposition leader. The author was notified that his page had been added to the Register of Banned Sites. According to Yakovlev, the ban could be related either to his criticism of the Sverdlovsk governor Yevgeniy Kuyvashev or to his liberal position on soft drugs.

Altai demands restrictions
On 18 February the Altai regional prosecutor announced that the Zarinsk prosecutor had identified several websites containing extremist materials and demanded that two ISPs use IP-address filtering to block them.

Kirov action against ISPs
On 18 February the Kirov district prosecutor in Samara filed 10 legal suits against ISPs demanding blocks on websites that contain extremist materials. The suits are currently being considered.

Extremist website accessed from college
On 20 February it was reported that the counterpropaganda officers of the Centre for Extremism Prevention of the Karachay-Cherkessia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs had discovered that computers at the Karachay-Cherkessia College of International Tourism and Hospitality Management in the village of Uchkeken, provided unfettered access to a website included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. The audit results have been forwarded to the prosecutor’s office.

ISP blocks sites in Smolensk
On 11 February it was reported that in the city of Gagarin in the Smolensk region the ISP Orbit Plus partially blocked access to several sites that published Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other pro-Nazi texts. Last November the regional prosecutor demanded that the ISP cease violating the Law on Combating Extremist Activity.

Videos barred in Altai
On 13 February the Gorno-Altaisk city court considered a suit filed in January by the Altai republic’s prosecutor against the ISP Rostelecom demanding restrictions on access to extremist videos published via the online social network VKontakte. In the course of the trial it was established that access to the videos had been restricted prior to the start of the trial. The case was subsequently dismissed.

Islamist videos banned in Kursk
On 13 February it was reported that the Zheleznodorozhnyi district prosecutor in Kursk had found extremist materials accessible online including anti-Russian Islamist video clips and other materials aimed at undermining the constitution and justifying murders of law enforcement officers. The ISPs Aksinet and Comstar-Regiony were told to restrict access to the relevant sites and complied with the demand.

Audit of websites in Karachay-Cherkessia
On 5 February the Centre for Extremism Prevention and the FSB of the Karachay-Cherkessia republic identified a publicly accessible website containing extremist material. The audit results have been forwarded to the republic’s prosecutor.

ISP warned in Krasnodar
On 7 February the Krasnodar regional prosecutor reported that the Temryukskii district prosecutor had identified a publicly accessible website, Vilayat Dagestan – maintained by Imarat Kavkaz (“Caucasus Emirate”) organisation – publishing extremist materials. The director of the regional branch of the ISP MTS was warned about about the impermissibility of extremist activity.

Gambling and online casinos

Khanty-Mansiysk court blocks gambling
On 25 February it was reported that the Urai prosecutor in Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district had been granted court backing to ensure that the ISP Rostelecom block access to gambling websites.

Tula prosecutor goes for pyramid scheme

On 26 February the Sovetskii district prosecutor in Tula sued the ISPs Altair Tula, MTS, RadioPeydzh-T, Tulskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet and ER-Telecom Holding, demanding that they restrict access to sites of the MMM pyramid scheme.

Ufa prosecutor demands restrictions
On 25 February it was announced that the Sovetskii district prosecutor in Ufa had sued the ISP Ufanet demanding that it block access to 26 gambling websites.

Gambling targeted in Surgut
On 27 February the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district prosecutor reported that the Surgut city prosecutor had identified several illegal gambling websites. The prosecutor demanded that six ISPs restrict access.

Tula casino access barred
On 27 February it was reported that the Tsentralnyi district prosecutor in Tula had filed 33 writs against ISPs demanding restrictions on access to online casinos. The Tsentralnyi district court ordered the ISPs to comply.

Pyramid-scheme sites banned in Yamal-Nenets
On 1 March the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district prosecutor reported that the Gubkinskiy city prosecutor had identified pyramid-scheme advertising on 18 websites and that Gubkinskiy city court had accepted the prosecutor’s demand that the ISP Pursatkom restrict access to the sites.

Chita court order ISP to block pyramid schemes
On 19 February it was reported that the central district court of Chita had granted a prosecutor’s request to order the local branch of the ISP Rostelecom to restrict access to the sites of Sergei Mavrodi, the creator of pyramid schemes. The decision has not yet entered into force.

Samara bars gambling ads
On 19 February it was reported that the Neftegorsk interdistrict prosecutor in the Samara region had identified 10 sites that provided information about a pyramid scheme. The Leninskii district court of Samara accepted the prosecutor’s demand that the ISP Rostelecom limit access to these sites. The court’s decisions have not yet entered into force.

Casino sites blocked in Kaliningrad
On 20 February it was announced that the Moscovskii district prosecutor in Kaliningrad had identified two gambling websites. The ISP TIS-Dialogue agreed voluntarily to its demand that it limit access to these sites.

Computer club told to clamp down
On 21 February it was reported that Kurganinskii district prosecutor in Krasnodar had found a pyramid-scheme website to be accessible via a computer club. The prosecutor’s demands that the owner of the club restrict access were accepted by the district court.

Surgut blocks pyramid sites
On 12 February it was reported that the Surgut city prosecutor had successfully moved to restrict access to pyramid-scheme websites.

Online casinos blocked in Samara
On 13 February the Leninskii district court in Samara accepted nine demands from the Chapaevsk prosecutor for restrictions on access to online casinos. The decisions of the court have not yet entered into force.

Tula orders online casino ban
On 15 February it was reported that the Sovetskii district court of Tula had accepted prosecutors’ demands that ISPs Altair Tula, MTS, and ER-Telecom Holding block access to gambling websites.

Casinos blocked in Komi Republic
On 14 February it was reported that the Ukhta city prosecutor had been given court approval for its demand that the ISP GSP restrict access to nine gambling websites.

Drugs

Samara court blocks drug promotion
On 20 February it was announced that the Oktiabrskii district prosecutor in Samara had filed 70 writs demanding restrictions on access to websites promoting illegal drugs. Of these, 43 have been accepted by the local court and the rest are pending. Previously, on 5 February, the Kirov district prosecutor on Samara had successfully demanded restrictions on access to seven sites promoting drugs.

Cannabis sites blocked in Voronezh

On 13 February the Voronezh ISP Votek Mobile was ordered by a district court to limit access to the online cannabis seed distributor Semyanych, kacheli.my1.ru and ganzhaman.tut.by. Votek Mobile closed access to these sites.

And the rest

Move on fake diplomas site
On 8 February the Zhigulevsk city court in Samara backed the city prosecutor’s demand for restrictions on access to a website offering fake diplomas from various educational institutions. The court’s decision has not yet come into force.

Chechnya ban on Islamist TV channel
On 12 February the Leninskii district court of Grozny declared the internet TV channel Imam TV extremist. The site carries Musa Yandyrhanov’s video Napominaniie (Reminder) and talks by other members of illegal armed groups. The court said these materials promoted terrorism, contained incitement to violence against government representatives and incited hatred on religious grounds.

Block on sites giving bribery tips
On 12 February the Bashkortostan republic prosecutor announced that Sharanskii district prosecutor had identified several websites containing tips on giving bribes. The ISP Bashinformsvyaz was made to restrict access to these sites.

User group banned in St Petersburg
On 15 February it was reported that the Centralnyi district prosecutor in St Petersburg had ordered the social network VKontakte to block the user group Childfree. The prosecutor found that the group’s posts contained material violating the rights of minors. The VKontakte administration blocked the user group and deleted all its posts and blocked one user’s account.

ISP sued for posting bribery tips
On 4 February the Nefteyugansk interdistrict prosecutor identified sites containing bribery tips and filed a writ against the ISP Elektrosviazi demanding that it restrict access to these sites.

Orel blocks bribery sites
On 7 February it was reported that the Orel city prosecutor had identified several websites with tips on bribery and had been granted its demand for restrictions on access to the sites.

Post by designer added to banned list
On 5 February the popular designer Artemy Lebedev reported that the ISP Roskomnadzor had added his blog post containing an animated movie, Dumb Ways to Die, to the Register of Banned Sites. Roskomnadzor interpreted the video — a public service announcement by Metro Trains Melbourne in Australia — as promoting suicide.

Andrei Soldatov is a Russian journalist, and together with Irina Borogan, co-founder of the Agentura.Ru website. Last year, Soldatov and Borogan co-authored The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (PublicAffairs)

The post What Russia censored in February appeared first on Index on Censorship.

The reason for that is a traditional perception of media in post-Soviet society: everything said in an “official” paper or on TV is considered to be trustworthy.

“Belarus has a post-Soviet society that is characterised by non-critical attitude towards everything,” says Ales Antsipenka, a Belarusian philosopher and a media expert. “A bearer of ideological dogmas is required to be loyal to the authorities and totally take for granted messages mainstream ‘official’ media deliver, transmitting only one point of view — that of the regime.”

The “vertical model of communication” remains very strong in Belarusian society, where “top-down” information flows from the authorities to the population. In this model, the authorities that stay on top of the “information pyramid” and broadcast ideas that are supposed to be accepted as universal truth.

“This model is sustained through budget subsidies to state media, through ideological choice of people who manage those media outlets, through censorship and creation of ideological filters between sources of information and audience. On the other hand, there are independent media that are allowed to practise a critical attitude to reality”, Antsipenka says.

Increasing media literacy for Belarusians would help to improve the situation. The basis for media literacy should be a possibility to question, to analyse news reports in media, and to differentiate between propaganda, censorship and manipulation technologies. In this case, the media audience should become a competent member of the media process. But the Belarusian state does not want this to happen.

“The authorities of the country, on the contrary, rely on decreasing of cultural and educational levels, and a low level of media literacy is one of the main conditions of ideological and propaganda work among population,” say Ales Antsipenka.

The question is whether Belarusian media themselves are interested in their audience being able to differentiate a quality journalistic product from a poor one. According to Aliaksandr Klaskouski, a well-known Belarusian journalist and media expert, it is the media that aim to bring quality reporting to the public that are most interested in better media literacy of the audience.

“It is more useful for tabloids or ‘barricade media’ to have an indiscriminate reader. That is why, unfortunately, not many media outlets in Belarus are really interested in increase of the media literacy level of the audience,” Klaskouski admits.

“But propaganda media outlets, both state and oppositional, should be left aside when we speak of journalism and mass media,” Eduard Melnikau, a professor of European Humanities University, argues. “Otherwise, every ‘real’ media outlet should be interested in its audience having a good level of media literacy, because an educated reader can increase the effectiveness of media themselves as they become partners and co-authors.”

This can only be achieved if the society understands how valuable quality journalism is. But this, in turn, is impossible without changing of the system of values — a process that can take years.

“It is quite easy to change public opinion; it does not take too long. But changing the system of values in society is a much more complicated and long process. If we speak of a quality journalism, it is a product that is needed by people whose set of values changed from old Soviet to a new, European ones,” says Ales Antsipenka.

At the same time, professor Melnikau is sure it is impossible just to wait for the rest of the society to change their values system.

“Media literacy is needed today, and it is needed to everybody, from politicians to street cleaners, because media is the instrument of pushing the society towards humanitarian values; without these values no developments of economy, science, culture are possible,” argues Eduard Melnikau.

But it is clear the Belarusian state is not interested in media literacy of its citizens, and the society itself does not value quality journalism. So, the question is who should take the responsibility for media education of the audience? The obvious answer is media outlets themselves. But nowadays many of them are quite marginalised or operate in semi-clandestine conditions, and rarely work effectively with their audiences. Non-governmental organisations often fail to work with the society as well, as many of them concentrate on holding on to their structures and actual “survival” in difficult authoritarian conditions.

Journalistic organisations  such as the Belarusian Association of Journalists should be working in the field of media literacy. But the question is whether they will be allowed to access schoolchildren and students, who should become the main target audience for such programmes. The state holds the line of defence and substitute classes in media literacy with lessons in “political information”.

Yanina Melnikava is the editor of Mediakritika.by website from Belarus, dedicated to media analysis

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