On the Pussy Riot Front: Attacks Against Freedom of Speech & Expression; Censorship, & Control of the WEB

The ever freedom loving Vladimir Putin and his happy-go-lucky cronies in the Russian government have taken the idea of “book burning” & censorship and brought it kicking and screaming into the digital age with a Moscow District court labeling four videos by the much under fire punk band “Pussy Riot” as to extreme for viewing, with the court saying that “access to all websites hosting the videos must be limited.” One of the videos in particular was of the performance the band did at Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox Cathedral where the band protested Putin and his re-election along with his ties to the Church itself that of which whose patriarch (Patriarch Kirill) endorsed Putin‘s re-election. The performance lead to the arrest of three of the band’s members (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30) on Hooliganism Charges. The sites that violate the courts ruling face administrative fines up to 100,000 Rubles ($3,000 USD). The court used the vaguely defined “Extremism” Law that is supposed to restrict the Russian Neo-Nazi movement & terrorists groups from posting their rhetoric on the WEB. One such video that was banned was that of “The Innocence of Muslims”, the badly made YOUTUBE video that brought about protests and riots in the Middle East. Opponents of the Kremlin charge that the government of exploiting the law to stifle the freedom of speech.

 Yekaterina Samutsevich, one of the members of the band that was arrested for the impromptu concert and who has recently been released from jail upon with a suspended sentence, stated “Just as in old times, we burned books. Now we are deleting video clips which have undoubted historic significance.” Samutsevich went to court appealing their decision on the banning of the “Pussy Riot” material calling it “a clear sign of censorship of art and the culture of protest.” A spokeswomen for the district court (Zamoskvorechye), Yevgenia Pazukhina, said that Samutsevich had no right to appeal the decision since she had not taken part of the hearing. (To note, the court rejected Samutsevich request to take part in the hearing.) Pazukhina also went on to say that the court’s decision will take effect in a month’s time unless it is appealed. Spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, Vsevolod Chaplin, said they embraced the district court's decision, saying that the “Pussy Riot's” videos offended the feelings of all Orthodox Christians.
   
All of this comes on the heals during the time that the 12th annual World Conference on Informational Telecommunications (WCIT-12) Summit is taking place in Dubai. The WCIT-12 is where the United Nations advisory is facilitating updates & changes to the global telecommunications regulations that would place the Internet under control of nation states. Russia, along with China, are seeking to impose levies on Internet traffic and adopt standards that would make it much easier to track users and their activities. The measure known as Y.2770 would allow the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to adopt standards that would allow the inspection of Internet traffic including the inspection of personal emails. The United States House of Representatives -in rare solidarity- voted unanimously against Y.2770 and any other such measure that would give the U.N. or anyone else control of the WEB. Also, Russian lawmakers are also looking into toughening laws for religious offences. The new draft of the law would put in place prison terms for violations that occur, like that of the “Pussy Riot” performance, and other religious offences.

So if the new religious laws go into effect, then what next? Do we see a modern version of the Salem Witch Trails taking place in Russia against anyone who dares to speak out against… well, anything? It sure seems that way already. Apparently the pro-Putin, Kremlin-backed youth movement know as Nashi ("Ours!") seems to have placed a bounty on the other women of “Pussy Riot” that took part in the concert against Putin’s re-election. Pushing the women (the band supposedly numbers 20 members) deeper into hiding to the point of which the band’s own lawyers do not know the whereabouts of the band’s “Headquarters”.

Source Material:

Rolling Stone
The Associated Press
Reuters
The Daily Beast
And other Internet Sites