Russia changes media laws after siege

Russia’s lower house of parliament today passed a bill that would severely curb news coverage of anti-terrorist operations and prohibit the media from carrying rebel statements.

The Chechen rebels who seized more than 800 hostages at a Moscow theatre last week “had elaborated a media plan,” Press Minister Mikhail Lesin said in an interview published today.

“They were very well prepared from the point of view of the Russian mass media, journalists and newsmakers. And they used this situation very well.”

Special forces troops ended the stand-off by storming into the theatre, killing 41 of the attackers. At least 119 of the hostages died, the vast majority from a fentanyl gas compound the troops used to incapacitate the terrorists.

Up to 172 former hostages, including six children, remained in hospital today, a spokeswoman for the Moscow health committee said.

The new media law amendments were approved by a vote of 231-106, with one abstention. Pavel Kovalenko of the pro-Kremlin Unity faction, who introduced the draft, said today that “all fears that the law is aimed at strangling freedom of speech are groundless.”

The amendments, which must still be approved by the upper house and signed by President Vladimir Putin, would prohibit the media from publishing information that hinders counter-terrorist operations, reveals tactics used in such operations or reveals information about people involved in them.

It would also prohibit the publication or broadcast of “statements by individuals that are aimed at hindering a counter-terrorist operation and/or justifying resistance to a counter-terrorist operation” and other “propaganda or justification of extremist activity”.

Coverage of the war in Chechnya is already severely restricted, and it is almost impossible for journalists to work in the region except in close coordination with the military.