In a letter to President Medvedev, WAN-IFRA and WEF, the global associations of the world’s press, warned that the proposed law would allow journalists to be jailed simply for carrying out legitimate professional activities.

“The proposed legislation is the latest in a series of measures restricting independent journalism and follow amendments made to the law on extremism in 2006 and 2007 which broadened the definition of extremism to include criticism of officials," the letter said.

The proposal, which was presented to the country’s lower parliament, the State Duma, on 24 April, would give the Federal Security Service powers of censorship over articles deemed to “aid extremists” or "appear undesirable", and calls for fines and imprisonment for journalists and editors who do not comply. Documentation blaming “certain media outlets” for the rise of extremist activities in Russia has accompanied the legislation on its route into parliament.

WAN-IFRA argued that the proposed legislation violated the right to freedom of expression and numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The full letter read:

“We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries, to express our serious concern at proposed legislation that would give the Federal Security Service (FSB) powers of censorship.

“According to reports, amendments to the administrative code and the law on FSB activities would give the security agency the right to question journalists and order editors to remove articles that “aid extremists” or “appear undesirable”. Penalties for non-compliance range from a fine of up to 50,000 rubles (US$1,710) to 15 days’ detention. An “explanatory note” to the amendments blames “certain media outlets” for the rise of extremist activities. The legislation, which was sent to the lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, on 24 April, was introduced in response to the 29 March subway bombings in Moscow which left 40 people dead.

“The proposed legislation is the latest in a series of measures restricting independent journalism and follow amendments made to the law on extremism in 2006 and 2007 which broadened the definition of extremism to include criticism of officials.

“We are particularly concerned that the amendments provide for the jailing of journalists for carrying out their professional activities and would effectively reintroduce Soviet-style censorship. In Freedom House’s 2010 Press Freedom Index of 196 countries, Russia shared 176th place with Gambia. The report found that “Russia remained among the world’s more repressive and most dangerous media environments”.

“We respectfully remind you that the amendments 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 amendments are rejected and that the press are able to carry out their role of informing the public without interference. We urge you to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.”

More WAN-IFRA press freedom protests can be found here.

WAN-IFRA is the global organisation for the world’s newspapers and news publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

Learn more about WAN-IFRA at www.wan-ifra.org/ or through the WAN-IFRA Magazine.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, WAN-IFRA, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. Tel: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org.