Don't overdo it

We bring to the attention of readers a review of media publications made by the press service of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation based on the results of the hearings "Legal counteraction to extremism and problems of expertise" held on April 1, 2014.

The Public Chamber discussed methods for studying various materials for the presence or absence of signs of extremism.

As the head of the OP Commission on Interethnic Relations and freedom of conscience Nikolay Svanidze, today there is a growing threat that that actions that are not just oppositional are recognized as extremist or considered by the authorities as opposition, but also actions that are not coordinated with power.

“Now such an interpretation of extremism is getting quite broad proliferation, which, in my opinion, poses very serious threats. Not only for the legal system, but also for society as a whole, for the state,” stressed He.

Director of the Information and Analytical Center Alexander Verkhovsky outlined the main problems of examination related to the fact that recently expertise is “abused”, in addition, it is done by unskilled specialists.

In addition, experts face difficulties related to unsuccessful formulations in the anti-extremist legislation. "They're not just give rise to abuses and violations of the rights of citizens, but also hinder the creation an effective barrier to truly dangerous groups. Because it blurs an idea of ​​what, in fact, is possible and what is impossible, ”said Verkhovsky.

According to the expert, government officials and employees law enforcement agencies rather arbitrarily use key concepts, such as extremism and fascism.

“In order to avoid arbitrary interpretations and thought institute of scientific expertise, which is involved in cases related to extremist crimes,” Verkhovsky recalled. - But contrary to the law, contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court of 2011 a vicious practice has developed when the word “extremism”, expertise is always required, even if it is a case street scuffle. This creates a huge demand for expertise and not always a quality proposal,” Verkhovsky noted.

Only in one of the criminal cases on extremism was there no examination, but even here it was not without embarrassment: in court as evidence the presence of extremism in the book, referred to the material in Wikipedia, where it was it is written that the works of the leaders of the Italian Fascist Party are prohibited. "Examples Unfortunately, there are plenty of anecdotal expertise on cases,” he said.

Director of the Center for the Study of Extremism at the St. Petersburg State University Sergey Kuznetsov stated that the examinations related with the analysis of the content of the text, should be done by linguists, specialists text analysis. At the same time, Kuznetsov stressed that the expert should not answer the questions to be answered by the court: the expert cannot assert that any text is extremist. Kuznetsov added that if the expert behaves in court in such a way, then he should be challenged. "Very easy investigating authorities to work with such experts who provide answers for them”, - he said.

According to Kuznetsov, when analyzing a text, experts should be guided by the following: reveal and explain communicative tasks statements and targeting. "That's the only thing we can analyze," emphasized by the expert. At the same time, Kuznetsov added, the interpreting text cannot interpret it arbitrarily.

The idea that text analysis should be done by professional linguists, is contained in a new methodology for the study of texts in the subject of the presence or absence of signs of extremism, developed by specialists St. Petersburg State University.

“In the methodology, we propose to proceed from the fact that, since a large part of the materials is a text in one form or another, then analyze the text on the subject of the meaning of the statements contained in it and their target orientation - this is the competence of linguists,” said Ph.D. Department of Criminal Law of the Faculty of Law St. Petersburg State University Sergey Olennikov.

Head of the OP Commission for the development of civil society and interaction with the public chambers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, Iosif Diskin agreed that linguistic expertise is necessary, but emphasized that it will be not enough. According to him, linguists will not be able to evaluate how the text affects society.

“Isolation of the text from the social context in the realities of our countries, when there is no single moral, ethical consensus in society, will create serious problems. You need to understand that discourse is about values of the first order, vital,” said a member of the OP.

Therefore, Diskin is sure that the discussion should be translated into an instrumental level. A convention is needed, the mechanism of which is the exclusion of the maximum marginal cases from the body of examinations. And the process of forming this corpus must take place in public. "Marginal things and marginal experts will leave outside the field," Diskin is sure.

Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Russian Federation, Police Major General Vladimir Makarov believes that the situation may correct the creation of a unified methodology for conducting expert examinations in extremist cases.

He gave an example when one of the courts of the country considered and rejected examinations submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, appointing a third examination. As a result, the defendant was acquitted.

“Often our expertise is considered flawed, because it is departmental. Although in fact it is quite qualified, but not for all types expertise,” he explained. - Therefore, naturally, a unified methodology is required, and the fact that we are on this path is very important,” said the major general.

Makarov also said that now interdepartmental work is underway to creation of a database of all materials recognized as extremist.

“The base will be closed, only law enforcement will have access to it. authorities and experts. There will be texts, images, audio and video recordings.” noted the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. For many years, everyone has been asking to create such a base. expert community to make things easier. Now on the banned list materials there are several dozen court decisions on the same materials.

In turn, the head of the department of linguistic research and expertise at the Department of Regional Security of the Government of Moscow Julia Safonova suggested creating a unified list of extremist materials in order to this registry has not been added several times the same materials, videos or phrases. The current list of the Ministry of Justice is not suitable for this, it contains several the same materials that were previously recognized as extremist are repeated.

“There is so much money in our state that is wasted. When the same material is examined in ten different places and then again included in the list of extremist materials. For what? It is necessary to create a unified bases. And this is the task of the state,” the expert concluded. As regards the unified methodology, then, according to Safonova, it cannot exist in this area.

Sources

• Don't overdo it // Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. 2014. April 2.