Translated material
Roskomnadzor allowed the media not to label IS as a banned terrorist organization
meduza.io Meduza no longer writes about IS “a terrorist organization banned in Russia.” How so? — Meduza The editors of Meduza have decided to no longer accompany references to the Islamic State group with the obligatory note that this organization is recognized as terrorist and is banned in Russia.
Roskomnadzor, in response to an appeal from a Tyumen resident, clarified that the media are not required to specially mark the terrorist organization “Islamic State” in their reports, since it is not included in the special list of the Ministry of Justice. Meduza reports this.
Tyumen resident Maxim Lunegov complained to Roskomnadzor about material the Vesti.ru website’s about the terrorist attack in Ansbach, Germany, published on July 25. It mentioned ISIS, but did not include the special note “The organization is recognized as terrorist in Russia and is banned,” which is typical for the media.
On August 12, the Permitting Department of the main office of Roskomnadzor responded to the resident that the material did not violate the laws “On the Mass Media” and “On Combating Extremist Activities.” According to the department's explanation, ISIS is not included in the list of organizations that were liquidated by court order or whose activities were suspended due to extremism .
Roskomnadzor only clarified that the Islamic State is included in the list of terrorist organizations maintained by the FSB. As Meduza notes, the media law does not require special marking of organizations included in this list; there are no similar requirements on the Roskomnadzor website in the list of prohibited information .
According to information from the Roskomnadzor website, the media may receive a warning for violating the requirements. After two warnings within six months, the media may lose its license. a warning for mentioning the Right Sector without indicating that this organization is recognized as extremist in Russia and is banned . received For example, on February 1 , The New Times magazine
As Meduza notes, the position of the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, differs from the position of his department: he has repeatedly pointed out in interviews and articles that the media should mark the Islamic State in a special way. TJ has not yet received comments from the department’s press service on this issue.
Meduza said that Roskomnadzor’s response actually allows the media to avoid using the phrase “the organization is recognized as terrorist and is banned” every time ISIS is mentioned, but readers should not get the impression that this “Islamic State” is really a state.
In November 2015, part of the Russian media, at the instigation of Dmitry Kiselyov, switched to using the term Daesh - this is the abbreviation for ISIS in Arabic. The TV presenter explained this by saying that in this way it is possible, among other things, to avoid a cumbersome structure when mentioning ISIS, and in addition to “show respect for Muslims.” The new abbreviation never caught on in the media.