Russian court upholds warning issued to the internet site “Gazeta.ru”

The Moscow Arbitration Court has declared that the official warning issued to the Internet website “Gazeta.ru” for its publication pertaining to the so-called “Cartoon affair” was lawful. The suit lodged by “Gazeta.ru” against Roskhrankultura (the Federal Service for Monitoring Observance of legislation on the mass media and protection of cultural heritage) calling for the warning to be declared invalid was rejected.

On 2 February 2006 “Gazeta.ru” posted material on its website about the reactions of some Muslims to the publication of cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed in a Danish newspaper. The material was accompanied by the actual cartoons. Roskhrankultura deemed the publication to be “extremist”.  According to the Service’s officials, “Gazeta.ru” had not taken into consideration the consequences of the publication of the Danish newspaper with the cartoons which caused mass protest from Muslims around the world, and even violent attacks in some countries. Roskhrankultura therefore concluded that the publication had breached the law “On the mass media” and the law “On countering extremist activity”.