In a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, WAN and the WEF said the law would "further undermine the role of the press to inform the public and lead to even greater self-censorship than already exists." The Paris-based organisations said the vague language of the law "would allow public officials to interpret the law as they please and effectively target their critics."

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, approved the "Law on Fighting Extremist Activity" on 8 July. It now must be considered by the upper house, the Federation Council, before being signed into law by President Putin.

In enacted, the law would broaden the definition of extremism to include media criticism of public officials and provide for imprisonment of up to three years for journalists and the suspension or closure of their publications.

In its letter to Mr Putin, WAN reminded the President of his remarks supporting press freedom made at the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Moscow last month. WAN said that passage of the new law "would constitute a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression."

The letter said:

"We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at proposed legislation that provides for up to three years in jail for journalists who criticise public officials and categorises them as ’extremists’.

According to reports, on 28 June the lower house of parliament approved amendments to the Law on Fighting Extremist Activity in a first reading. If enacted, the law would broaden the definition of extremism to include media criticism of public officials and provide for imprisonment of up to three years for journalists and the suspension or closure of their publication. If the bill is passed in two further readings, it would be submitted to the upper house.

"Amendments to Article 1 of the law broaden the definition of extremist activity to include ’public slander directed toward figures fulfilling the state duties of the Russian Federation’, as well as ’interfering with the legal duties of organs of state authorities’.

"We are seriously concerned that this legislation, if enacted, would further undermine the role of the press to inform the public and lead to even greater self-censorship than already exists. We are also concerned that the vague language used would allow public officials to interpret the law as they please and effectively target their critics.

"We respectfully remind you that you told our Congress that ’our people made a conscious choice in favour of democracy. Freedom of the media remains one of the most important guarantees of this choice’.

"We respectfully remind you that, if passed, this law would constitute a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that the proposed legislation is withdrawn and to ensure that in future your country fully observes international standards of freedom of expression."

More press freedom protests here.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

The WEF is the organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers (www.worldeditorsforum.org).

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr