Russia : New bill equates popular bloggers to mass media

Published time: February 19, 2014 09:05

 

AFP Photo / David Gannon

 

Russian lawmakers suggest that internet authors whose works attract 10,000 or more visitors a day should be accredited as journalists, receiving all rights and responsibilities commensurate with this status.
The changes in state attitude to the blogosphere are the main part of the fresh package of amendments to the Law on Mass Media, Izvestia daily reported on Wednesday quoting an unnamed parliamentary source. According to the source, the figure of 10,000 daily visitors is already fixed in the draft papers, but did not specify if this was a single-time threshold or a mean index.
When a blogger signs for mass media accreditation he or she will automatically have an obligation to observe all legal norms applied to registered news outlets - the obligation to verify information before distributing it and responsibility for the consequences caused by the publications.
Izvestia’s source noted that the new amendment was modeled on a scheme already in use in Israel.
The news was confirmed by Vadim Dengin, first deputy head of the Duma Committee for Information Technology.
“Every blogger whose blog gets past a certain popularity threshold can be equated to mass media. Other people can share opinions expressed in blogs and expressing information with personal evaluations makes bloggers personalities of a national scale. It is natural that they are made equal with the mass media. They must share responsibility for their words and work within legal parameters,” the MP said.
Popular Russian bloggers are skeptical about the initiative. Stanislav Apetyan, who writes under nickname Politrash on the Livejournal platform, noted that a blogger can be brought to responsibility for slander like any other person, and the law on mass media is not necessary for this procedure. Another blogger, Edward Chesnokov, pointed out that the internet is extremely decentralized and the authorities do not have real power over services that are legally and technically located in other countries.

Read More Here

Related articles

• New bill equates popular bloggers to mass media
• Blogs begin to play a prominent political role

Message to Police From Josie The Outlaw

Josie Outlaw·


   

Published on Dec 1, 2013

Something you need to consider if you work in law enforcement--a question of life or death that you need to answer, and answer now.

(If you like what you see here, please consider visiting www.JOSIEtheOUTLAW.com and helping Josie to keep spreading the message of true freedom.)

Related articles

• Solutions: Being An Outlaw
• Operation Outlaw (Secret Project)
• Solutions: Being An Outlaw
• Why Good People Should Be Armed

'Eminent Domain for the People' Leaves Wall Street Furious

Published on Wednesday, August 7, 2013 by Common Dreams

Housing justice advocates hopeful about innovative Richmond plan to use public seizure laws to save underwater homes from foreclosure

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer

Underwater Homeowners Press Conference in front of Richmond City Hall (Photo: ACCE)Using the authority of state government to actually help people has Wall Street bankers in a panic, spurring threats of aggressive legal retaliation against the town of Richmond, California simply for trying to help some of its struggling homeowners.
'Eminent domain' has long been a dirty term for housing justice advocates who have seen municipalities invoke public seizure laws to displace residents and communities to make way for highways, shopping malls, and other big dollar projects.
But in Richmond, city officials are using eminent domain to force big banks to stop foreclosing on people's homes in an innovative new strategy known as 'Principle Reduction' aimed at addressing California's burgeoning housing crisis.
Richmond became the first California city last week to move forward on a plan that has been floated by other California municipalities to ask big bank lenders to sell underwater mortgage loans at a discount to the city (if the owner consents), and seize those homes through eminent domain if the banks refuse. The city has committed to refinancing these homes for owners at their current value, not what is owed.
City officials launched this process by sending letters in late July to 32 banks and other mortgage owners offering to buy 624 underwater mortgages at the price the homes are worth, not what the owners owe.
"After years of waiting on the banks to offer up a more comprehensive fix or the federal government, we're stepping into the void to make it happen ourselves," Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said in late July.
Wall Street is furious at the plan and has vowed to sue the municipality, a threat that did not stop Richmond but did slow other California cities in adopting the strategy.
Big banks have been slammed for their damaging mortgage loan policies that target poor and working class people and communities of color with high risk loans, policies that have had a profound impact on Richmond, which has large latino, African American, and low-income communities.
Eminent domain laws also have a painful history in Richmond, but housing justice advocates are hopeful about this new twist on the seizure law.
"For years we have seen cases where eminent domain was used in a harmful way, and it really hurts low-income communities of color," David Sharples, local director for Contra Costa Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, told Common Dreams. "People here in Richmond talk about when they built the big 580 Freeway, and people had their houses taken and were displaced."
"But we see this as a way eminent domain is finally being used to help keep families in their homes," he added. "It is finally a way for it to be used in a good way."

_____________________

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Related articles

• Richmond Threatens Eminent Domain To Address Foreclosure Crisis
• California City Threatens to Use Eminent Domain to Stop Bank Foreclosures
• El Monte becomes second Cali city to consider eminent domain to rescue mortgages
• California city becomes first to adopt eminent domain plan
• 'Eminent Domain for the People' Leaves Wall Street Furious
• Richmond Escalates Eminent Domain Plan With Loan Offers
• Richmond, CA May Use Eminent Domain to Prevent Foreclosures
• Freddie Mac Fires First Salvo In Eminent Domain Mortgage Battle
• Another Dumb Idea: "Eminent domain" for Underwater Mortgages