Russia Tightens Control of Papers and Bloggers

Putin is looking more and more like he has no need for an open and free democracy. In the name of security and protecting the homeland from people who hate freedom of the press (irony or what) it is easy to get people to surrender their rights. Russians fear blow to press freedom Last updated at 20:28pm on 16th March 2007 Russia's creation of a super agency to regulate the media and Internet has led to fears of a return to Soviet-style repression. President Vladimir Putin has decided to merge two authorities to license and oversee the editorial content of broadcasters, newspapers and websites. Officials claim this will improve efficiency but some of Russia’s top journalists are uneasy. Under Putin’s rule, domestic media are under heavy pressure not to criticise the government. Raf Shakirov, who was dismissed as editor of the Izvestiya daily after critical coverage of the 2004 Beslan school siege, said Putin’s decree could extend Soviet-style controls to Russia’s online media. ‘This is an attempt to put everything under control, including personal data about people such as bloggers,’ he said. Roman Bodanin, political editor of news website gazeta.ru, said the superregulator could make it easier for the government to pressure the media because it would also control the granting of licences. Original From The Gulf News Tired of stifling official control over mainstream television and newspapers, Russians have increasingly turned to the internet to find independent sources of information. Russians are the second largest group represented on the big US-based blog www.livejournal.com. Their blogs often feature political debates and advertise protests by opposition leaders. But authorities have already fired a warning shot across the bows of one leading news website, www.gazeta.ru, which got an official warning last year for "extremism" after writing about cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Roman Bodanin, gazeta.ru's political editor, said the new super-regulator could make it easier for the government to track and pressurise independent media because the same agency would control the granting of licences and the supervision of content.