Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:04:45 -0800 (PST)
x-post from ruslaw list
10Feb98 RUSSIA: WEB WATCH - BILL THREATENS INTERNET FREEDOM.
By Bill Fick.
Despite ambivalence on the part of many state security organs, the Russian
Internet has so far largely escaped onerous government regulations that
might stifle its development. But Russian netizens beware, a new law on
sredstva massovoi informatsii, or mass media, under discussion in the State
Duma, could place a huge roadblock in the path of Russia's fledgling web
publishers, from individuals with personal home pages to large corporations
blazing the trails of electronic commerce. (for a comparative copy of the
old and new laws, see http://www.cityline.ru/politika/media/
zsmi5p1.html).
A series of proposed amendments to the legislation
(http://www.cityline.ru/politika/media/zpsmi1.html) specifies that
"computerized information" and "messages and materials distributed via
computer networks" shall be included in the definition of "mass media."
It's hard to argue with the logic: after all, what form of media could be
more massive than the Internet, which makes information available to
millions of people throughout the world?
However, the registration requirements which follow from "mass media"
status under the proposed law appear burdensome and would surely handicap
the Russian web. Only legal entities or physical persons registered as
private entrepreneurs may publish "mass media," while persons under 18
years of age, foreigners and legal entities with more than 10 percent
foreign ownership or 30 percent foreign staff are specifically excluded.
Suddenly, thousands of individuals with personal home pages and companies
with advertising sites and newsletters could find themselves required to go
through the same registration process as the owners of a television station
or newspaper, which involves a complex bureaucratic procedure and a fee of
50 minimum wages, or about $1,000. Only print publications with
circulations of less than 1,000 enjoy exemption.
Internet service providers that offer virtual web hosting services might
have the financial and organizational interest and means to register, but
they would be loathe to blanket their customers in their own license and
thus accept responsibility for the content of client web pages.
The transparent and transnational nature of the web highlights the
absurdity of such attempts at regulation. If enforced on the Russian
Internet, the law would probably just drive Russian web sites offshore to
web "server farms" in the United States and Europe that offer wholesale
site hosting services. Download speeds over clogged international channels
might be slower, but unregistered sites would not be pinched into oblivion.
While Article 54 of the law requires that all foreign mass media receive
explicit permission for "distribution" of their products in Russia, I
hardly expect that webmasters from Antigua to Zimbabwe will rush to
Goskompechat for their permission slips, and wholesale "blocking" of
foreign Internet sites on a larger scale than what China has tried seems
unlikely here even in worst-case scenarios.
The government might still try to take measures against individuals
physically located in Russia who create information published on offshore
sites, but it would be unable simply to "pull the plug" or otherwise block
distribution.
Other provisions of the new law on mass media and Russian libel precedents
are also problematic and may have a chilling effect on free expression
(see, for example, http://www.npi.ru/RAPIC/legis/discuss.htm), but this is
beyond the purview of today's column. In principle, I would agree that web
publishers should bear responsibility for their words similar to that borne
by traditional media.
But the low cost and accessibility of Internet publishing make it different
from expensive printing operations and broadcasts that use limited
frequency spectrum, which require state regulation and anti-monopoly
protection.
Thus far, reaction to the proposed rules has been muted, with some online
discussion in the National Press Institute's cyberjournalism mailing list
(http://www.npi.ru/ RAPIC/diary/cybj.htm) and a forum at
http://www.ipclub.ru/cgi-bin/free-gb-view.cgi?owner=486. Disturbingly, most
of the correspondents seem content to hope that personal home pages will be
permitted, without addressing the more troubling "prior restraint" the law
would effectively place on web pages published by legal entities that are
not newspapers, television stations, etc.
One concerned Russian netizen, Grigory Belonuchkin, has devoted a special
web page to the new law (http://www.cityline.ru/politika/
media/media.html) and reports that Duma Deputy Yury Nestorov of the Yabloko
fraction has offered to make an amendment to address concerns about the
Internet after considering public input and "foreign experience."
My advice to Deputy Nestorov: simply exempt "computerized information" from
registration requirements entirely, while acknowledging its unique status
as mass media.
In his ringing rejection of government attempts to censor Internet content,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens eloquently described the
uniquely democratic and accessible nature of Internet publishing: "Through
the use of chat rooms, any person with a phone line can become a town crier
with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox," he
wrote. "Through use of the web pages, mail exploders, and news groups, the
same individual can become a pamphleteer."
It would be a shame to see Russia drive cyber samizdat underground or into
the hands of the powerful oligarchies that already control so much of the
nation's media.
Bill Fick welcomes any tips on interesting web sites or questions
concerning the Internet for response in future editions of this column.
Fick is co-founder of Samovar Internet Consulting, LLC. Web:
http://www.samovar.ru e-mail: [email protected] fax: (095) 953-2261.
(c) 1998 Independent Press.
MOSCOW TIMES 10/02/98
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