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	<title>Global Voices Advocacy &#187; Russia</title>
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	<link>http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org</link>
	<description>Defending Free Speech Online</description>
	<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:15:56 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Russia: One Year in Prison for Blog Comment</title>
		<link>http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/15/russia-one-year-in-prison-for-blog-comment/</link>
		<comments>http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/15/russia-one-year-in-prison-for-blog-comment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:54:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Veronica Khokhlova</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Advocacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Features]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/?p=433</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On July 7, Savva Terentyev, 22, a Russian blogger and musician, received a one-year suspended jail sentence for a comment he posted on Feb. 15, 2007, on the blog of a local journalist Boris Suranov. Below are rough translations of the comment and a small passage from the verdict, as well as an opinion poll on the impact of Terentyev's case on the freedom of expression in the Russian blogosphere.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On July 7, Savva Terentyev, 22, a Russian <a href="http://terentyev.livejournal.com/">blogger</a> and <a href="http://durdom-band.narod.ru/">musician</a> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syktyvkar">Syktyvkar</a>, received <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/russian-bloggers-rant-earns-suspended-sentence/">a one-year suspended jail sentence</a> for <a href="http://terentyev.livejournal.com/28161.html">a comment</a> (RUS) he posted on Feb. 15, 2007, on the blog of a local journalist Boris Suranov.</p>
<p>Here is a rough translation of the comment:</p>
<blockquote><p>I hate cops [<em>menty</em>], [swear word omitted]</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t agree with the thesis that &#8220;policemen still have the mentality of a repressive stick in the hands of the powers that be.&#8221; First, they are cops [<em>menty</em>, not <em>militsionery</em>, a less respectful way to refer to police]. Second, their mentality isn&#8217;t <strong>still</strong> here. It&#8217;s simply ineradicable. Once a <em>musor</em> [a synonym for <em>ment</em>; non-slang meaning of the word is "trash"], always a <em>musor</em>, even in Africa. Those who become cops [<em>menty</em>] - rednecks and thugs - are the dumbest and least educated representatives of the live/animal world. Would be great if there was an oven, similar to those in Auschwitz, in the center of every Russian city, at the main square (in Syktyvkar, right in the center of Stefanovskaya, where the New Year&#8217;s tree stands, so that <strong>everyone</strong> could see), and there&#8217;d be a daily ceremony - or, even better, twice a day (at noon and midnight, for example) - of burning a dishonest cop [<em>ment</em>] there. The people would be doing the burning. This would be the first step towards cleansing the society of the dirt that the thuggish cops are.</p></blockquote>
<p>The court found Terentyev guilty of inciting enmity and publicly humiliating representatives of a social group (<a href="http://www.russian-criminal-code.com/PartII/SectionX/Chapter29.html">Article 282, part 1</a> of the Russian Federation&#8217;s Criminal Code).</p>
<p>Here is a rough translation of a tiny part of <a href="http://mezak.livejournal.com/132168.html">the 12-page &#8220;guilty&#8221; verdict</a> (RUS), posted by one of the defense witnesses, LJ user <em>mezak</em>, on his blog (the original of the passage below is on p. 11; the post also has photos of Terentyev, his defense team, and the judge reading the verdict; there are 376 comments to the post so far):</p>
<blockquote><p>[...] Defendant Terentyev S.S. [Savva Sergeyevich], by means of the language, by having a negative impact on the public opinion and mood, and by aiming to incite social enmity and hatred, to escalate social conflict, to sharpen social contradictions, to awaken base instincts in people, contrasted the people and police officers, calling to [their] physical annihilation by the people. The text does not allow for ambiguous understanding and interpretation of [its] content and meaning, because it should be understandable to any average native speaker of Russian who has basic oral and written language skills. [...]</p></blockquote>
<p>LJ user <em>sholademi</em> re-posted the verdict on his blog and added <a href="http://sholademi.livejournal.com/912190.html">this note</a> (RUS) at the end of his entry:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hmm, it has to be noted that the court&#8217;s verdict contains many orthographic mistakes. This, in addition to the legal side of the case (namely, the questionable linguistic analysis). In short, it&#8217;s getting crazier and crazier.</p></blockquote>
<p>In another post, LJ user <em>sholademi</em> <a href="http://sholademi.livejournal.com/915048.html">posted a 5-question survey</a> (RUS), explaining that Terentyev&#8217;s defense team was planning to appeal the blogger&#8217;s sentence and, among other things, would like to &#8220;find out how Savva Terentyev&#8217;s case is going to affect the discussion environment in the Russian blogosphere.&#8221; Below are the survey&#8217;s results so far:</p>
<blockquote><p>1. <strong>Before Savva Terentyev&#8217;s case, were there many LJ bloggers who allowed themselves to speak harshly of law enforcement and other state institutions and officials?</strong></p>
<p>a. Many bloggers made such statements - 842 (75.4%)</p>
<p>b. Only some bloggers made such statements - 233 (20.9%)</p>
<p>c. I&#8217;ve never encountered such statements on blogs - 41 (3.7%)</p>
<p>2. <strong>Before the verdict on Savva Terentyev&#8217;s case, how often did you encounter harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials on your friends feed?</strong></p>
<p>а. Such statements were pretty frequent on my friends feed - 664 (59.7%)</p>
<p>b. Such statements were pretty rare on my friends feed - 347 (31.2%)</p>
<p>c. Such statements were never present on my friends feed - 102 (9.2%)</p>
<p>3. <strong>If the verdict on Savva Terentyev&#8217;s case comes into force, how will it affect the number of bloggers who would allow themselves to make harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials in open posts and comments?</strong></p>
<p>a. Their numbers will grow significantly - 193 (17.4%)</p>
<p>b. Their numbers will grow, but not significantly - 239 (21.6%)</p>
<p>c. Their numbers will decrease, but not significantly - 550 (49.6%)</p>
<p>d. Their numbers will decrease significantly - 126 (11.4%)</p>
<p>4. <strong>If the verdict on Savva Terentyev&#8217;s case comes into force, how will it affect the number of bloggers who would allow themselves to make harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials in locked (friends-only) posts?</strong></p>
<p>a. Their numbers will grow significantly - 386 (34.9%)</p>
<p>b. Their numbers will grow, but not significantly - 470 (42.5%)</p>
<p>c. Their numbers will decrease, but not significantly - 219 (19.8%)</p>
<p>d. Their numbers will decrease significantly - 31 (2.8%)</p>
<p>5. <strong>Do you consider Savva Terentyev&#8217;s sentence fair?</strong></p>
<p>a. I consider it fair - 73 (6.5%)</p>
<p>b. I consider it unfair, as it is too soft - 12 (1.1%)</p>
<p>c. I consider it unfair, as it is too harsh - 71 (6.3%)</p>
<p>d. I consider it unfair in principle, because, in my opinion, Savva did not commit a crime - 963 (86.1%)</p></blockquote>
<p>On July 14, Savva Terentyev and his lawyer held a press conference in Moscow (see <a href="http://mezak.livejournal.com/133448.html">photo of Terentyev</a> at LJ user <em>mezak</em>&#8217;s blog). LJ user <em>dolboeb</em> - Anton Nossik, the self-described &#8220;<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/anossik">Social Media Evangelist at SUP</a>,&#8221; the online media company that owns <em>LiveJournal.com</em> - announced the event on his blog and <a href="http://dolboeb.livejournal.com/1291374.html">added this note</a> (RUS) at the end of his post:</p>
<blockquote><p>[...] Each month, 10-12 million comments appear in the Cyrillic LJ (10.5 million in June, 130.5 million in the past 12 months). On the average, every post gets 3.7 comments. [The police unit that initiated Savva Terentyev's case] has plenty of work ahead (unless, of course, they&#8217;ve got nothing else to busy themselves with).</p></blockquote>
<p>At the press conference, LJ user <em>dolboeb</em> <a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/293024.html">reiterated his point</a> (RUS, link to an article in <em>Novaya Gazeta</em>, the newspaper for which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya">Anna Politkovskaya</a> used to write):</p>
<blockquote><p>[...] Of course, spending 15 minutes on the web and finding a criminal is a lot more convenient than running around the dark, narrow streets with a gun. As a taxpayer, I&#8217;m not satisfied with this situation. [...]</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Russian LiveJournal blogger could face three-year sentence</title>
		<link>http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/18/russian-livejournal-blogger-could-face-three-year-sentence/</link>
		<comments>http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/18/russian-livejournal-blogger-could-face-three-year-sentence/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:24:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sami Ben Gharbia</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/18/russian-livejournal-blogger-could-face-three-year-sentence/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[


The 23-year old Russian blogger, Dmitry Shirinkin, who wrote a fiction story on his blog inspired by the Virginia Tech shooting, could face up to three years in prison (Please read the whole story on Global Voices). Dmitry Shirinkin was running a LiveJournal blog under the title tetraox and wrote about buying a gun and [...]]]></description>
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<p>The 23-year old Russian blogger, Dmitry Shirinkin, who <a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/22/russia-blogger-on-trial-for-writing-fiction/">wrote a fiction story on his blog</a> inspired by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_Shooting">Virginia Tech shooting</a>, could face up to three years in prison (Please read the whole <a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/22/russia-blogger-on-trial-for-writing-fiction/">story on Global Voices</a>). Dmitry Shirinkin was running a LiveJournal blog under the title tetraox and wrote about buying a gun and killing number of people in one of the city&#8217;s colleges. He is being accused of &#8220;<a href="http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/14131">falsely warning of a terror threat</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>The Prosecutor&#8217;s Office analysed  Dmitry&#8217;s blog and concluded he had a desire to shoot dead a dozen people</em>,&#8221; <a href="http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/14131">Russia Today reported</a>. However, Shirinkin&#8217;s defense is requesting a language analyst to give his expert opinion on the controversial text. The trial has been adjourned to September 20th.</p>
<p>In an interview with Russia Today (watch the video above), Shirinkin said &#8220;<em>I didn’t expect that a short writing piece could provoke such reaction from the security services. They interrogated me asking where my gun was, but I&#8217;d never had one</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Russia Today, the blog made Dmitry popular even before the trial as he was awarded the title of the best blogger in the region. On the other hand, Russian bloggers are concerned since Shirinkin&#8217;s case might set a bad precedent for the country&#8217;s Internet users.</p>
<p><a href="http://thedifferencemagazine.blogspot.com/2007/04/do-you-dare-leave-comment.html">Another</a> Russian Livejournal blogger is also facing a two-year prison sentence or a fine of 100,000-ruble ($4,000) for &#8220;inciting hate&#8221; against police. <a href="http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070813-091350-6031r">According to Komi regional prosecutor</a>, the allegedly offending message- which has been deleted from the site - of the 21-year old Savva Terentyev contains &#8220;<em>a direct call aimed at inciting hatred or hostility, as well as harming the dignity of &#8230; a particular social group: policemen.</em>&#8220;</p>
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