Pravda.Ru protests against the FSB’s demands to remove “materials allegedly posted on the site that help incite sectarian hatred”

On March 23, on the main page a message appeared of the Pravda.Ru website: "At the request of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, access to the materials of Pravda.Ru has been temporarily suspended." Thus, the online edition is protesting against the actions of the special services, which turned to the site's hosting provider and demanded to remove "materials that promote incitement of inter-confessional hatred." Moreover, the editors of Pravda.Ru did not receive exact references to the mentioned materials.

The editors have issued a statement in this regard. It says: “...there were no such materials on the pages of Pravda.Ru and there are none. The scandal with the“ Danish cartoons ”without any publication of them was covered only in commentary form.

We are surprised that the request to remove any Pravda.Ru materials was received not by the editorial office, but by the hosting provider. It should be noted that our publication is a mass media registered in accordance with Russian law and, thus, is a participant in the civil process of the country. The publisher - Closed Joint Stock Company "Pravda.Ru" - is a participant in economic, economic relations in the country. Thus, it is not clear to us why the employees of the secret service do not turn to us, the content producers, but to the technical service, through which our materials are available to the visitors of the resource. Does this mean that if we had not closed access to the main page, the FSB could have resolved the issue of the operation of the server on which Pravda.Ru materials are physically located without contacting us?

In connection with the above, Pravda.Ru is waiting for an explanation from the employees of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. And apologies. We have the right to demand respect for ourselves and for our activities.

Until these explanations appear, the main (input) page of the resource will be closed. We offer our sincere apologies to the readers of "Pravda.Ru" for the obstacles created in access to the materials published promptly. Pravda.Ru, let us mention once again, as a media outlet registered and operating in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation, would not like to have any problems with the special services, as well as with possible warnings from the registering authority, after which the publication may be officially closed.

Hope for understanding".

Sources

• Statement by the editors of Pravda.Ru // Pravda.Ru. 2006. March 23.
• "The FSB shut down Pravda.Ru, the Internet, telegraph, bridges and banks" // Polit.Ru. 2006. March 23.