Surprises in the fight against extremism

Last week, a scandal unexpectedly broke out: the media found out that the Federal List of Extremist Materials was included in the text, the text of which is identical to the note from the website kremlin.ru. This happened by decision of the Central District Court of Omsk, which recognized the next issue of the newspaper “Radical Politics” as extremist material. The court decision listed the newspaper's materials (separated by commas, indicating authors and titles) - and that same note was included in the mournful list.

Let us leave aside the wonderful evolution that occurred with this news: from the SOVA Center website and Lenta.ru , which correctly described the situation (that the prohibited text practically coincides with the “Kremlin”; one sentence is attributed to it) to “non-core” peripheral resources, simply who declared: “A note from the president’s website has been recognized as extremist!” - we are now not talking about professionalism or journalistic ethics.

We will not analyze in detail the funny attempt to justify ourselves that was made by the Omsk Regional Court: the press secretary of which stated that the journalists supposedly misunderstood everything, and no note from the president’s website was prohibited, but was part of extremist material. That’s how it is, only in the court decision, which is the basis for replenishing the Federal List, these two materials are listed separately, not even in a row - and it is difficult to imagine that they could be connected by someone who has not seen the banned issue of “Radical Politics” with my own eyes.

I'm talking about something else. The ill-fated decision of the Omsk court also added to the list of extremist materials a reprint of an article by Vladislav Inozemtsev from Ogonyok, and an essay by the editor of the Internet portal “Open Omsk” Viktor Korb , and some other materials in which it is difficult to discern signs of extremism (Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish journalist , convicted in Belarus for slandering Lukashenko, and Pavel Lyuzakov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Svobodnoe Slovo).

I’m somehow not worried about Inozemtsev: it’s unlikely that the legal department of the Kommersant Publishing House did not study the material before publication, and if his article appears in the form of a reprint somewhere else, I doubt that it will be attached to it. But what could happen to the rest? Okay, Poczobut’s texts are not particularly widespread in Russia, and he himself is abroad. But Victor Korb and Pavel Lyuzakov are Russian citizens. Korb, over there, is very nervous about the current situation. And I understand him: you never know what will come to the minds of law enforcement officers in the city of Omsk?

Generally speaking, even if the material itself is recognized as extremist and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials, it does not directly follow that it is prohibited at all. That is, for example, Korb’s essay is extremist only as part of an issue of the Radical Politics newspaper, but on Korb’s personal website it is not considered as such. But this, strictly speaking, follows only from law enforcement practice, and is not regulated by any rules.

There are not one or two such cases. Such collisions arise constantly and everywhere, no one solves them, and the situation is saved only by inattention, laziness and, I dare to hope, common sense. But what will happen if one of these disappears (and I’m afraid that common sense)?

Once again we see that the Federal List of Extremist Materials is cumbersome, meaningless, and does not work. And for everyone (for citizens, and for the courts, and for the Ministry of Justice) it would be best to cancel it - so that there is no shame.

Sources

• Zaitseva V. Surprises in the fight against extremism // Grani.ru. 2013. March 4.