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Stricter Internet comment moderation to be introduced in Russia
Published: 04 June, 2010, 22:16
Edited: 26 October, 2010, 07:45
TAGS: Russia, Internet, Mass media, Information Technology, Prime Time Russia
A new Supreme Court decree to be adopted next week makes Russian Internet mass media responsible for comments left on their sites.
The decree was prompted by a recent rise in the number of cases concerning Internet comments.
Secretary of Journalists’ Union Mikhail Fedotov, who was a member of the work group that prepared the decree, said that the decree would instruct the court on how to deal with such cases.
“We have made enormous efforts to get this work done, so I can say with responsibility that we have a very good understanding of the situation,” Fedotov said. “Our aim was to help the court in solving such cases, not to put extra pressure on the Internet mass media. We are talking about judicial practice, not about any amendments to the existing law.”
It means that from now on, Internet-based mass media would still be able to publish any comments left by visitors – with pre-moderation and editing or even without it. However, in case there was no moderation, and the authorized bodies or an individual would decide that some comments violate the law or the individual’s rights, they would be able to send a request to the site owners that, in their turn, will have to tackle the issue. If the site owners ignore the request, they would receive a warning, which can be disputed in court, and an individual would also have the right to take the case to court.
“The same approach is used in Germany, in France and in many other countries,” Fedotov added.
The decree, however, was not very warmly welcomed by the mass media themselves.
“The technical side is not a problem. The question is, how many complaints are going to be made, how many people or organisations would consider a certain comment insulting. And that's tough considering that our main audience is generally quite liberal and often takes critical positions towards ruling power,” journalist Elizaveta Surnacheva told RT. “It can easily end in watchdogs ordering us to remove everything, but then what's the purpose of introducing commenting functions?”
Blogger Andrey Podshibyakin echoes these concerns.
“I’m afraid Russian Internet media will just shut down comments completely to avoid any complications. Comment moderation will be impossible to enforce. It means that the mass media will have to keep the stuff entirely dedicated to monitoring comments. In big Internet media, there are thousands of comments daily. You will need dozens of people to monitor them,” Podshibyakin said.
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Monitoring is a very expensive business, and politically not a prudent one. Remaining open is the key. Only if there are complaints, and if the rules of commenting are clearly violated, the comment can be removed. Too much interference is not a good idea. Much more balance is attained by letting a variety of opinions come out. Hope the common sense will prevail. What is sometimes really puzzling is that the MEDIA can break any rules and use language that is borderline abusive, condescending, insulting. But the readers better be perfect gentlemen and ladies.
Oh, you mean you don't want to do it American style and trick people into reactions out of genius? I'm a despised person, anything I write is "hated" becuase it came from me. This thing that Russia has going on actually protects me because my opinion is expected instead of manipulatied, like I never did politics before they told me that they were better for not indulging in them; excuse me, okay. Rarely do I have an opinion on things not of my world, but I've changed because they made me angry. It's like, it's not about place with an undesirable, it's about the amount of junk that we've collected; it's about how much garbage they want to unload onto what they think is uneducated. I might not know, but I'm aware. And I no longer believe in fate, destiny or anything, and the glue that keeps our society together is gone with all the bashing. Now I rebel, no accepting. They need to learn personality hues. For me, it's survival of my organism.
and now to the 200,000 dollar question: who could be behind this move to censure internet comments which can be read by a large audience???
Could it be that the Chodorkovskis and Madoffs of this world feel worried that their system of "lies and deceit" could be punctured????