The State Duma adopted in the first reading such amendments to the law on mass media, which equate to mass media every such website on the Internet, which is regularly updated.

Today in the newspaper "Kommersant" - No. 32 (4573) of February 24, 2011 - an article appeared "To the media add mass ", in which they tell about the adoption by the State Duma (so far on first reading) of a whole series of more than interesting new products.

In no way can I deny myself the perverse pleasure of quoting just one piece of the paragraph of this article:

_{“I wish them the speedy adoption of these amendments in all three readings at once, and then the media law will cease to act, and all media will be outside the legal field, ” one of the authors of the current media law, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia Mikhail Fedotov told Kommersant . According to him, “this document is very raw” in all its aspects. Thus, it is proposed to place Internet sites in the category of mass media . At the same time, on the one hand, it says that the sites retain the “principle of voluntary registration” as media, and on the other, all sites that regularly update information and “provide access to materials in electronic form” are classified as media. So, “the official website of the State Duma is the media,” said Mr. Fedotov. And "the site of the auto parts store is also the media." But then, according to Mr. Komissarov's amendments, “the owner of the store is obliged to create an editorial office in the store, and journalists must work in the spare parts warehouse”.}

Damn that, and? And there is still a lot of interesting things about “the licensing authority decides whether to issue a license or to refuse to issue a license,” for example. That is, the registration of the site may refuse, for example. For a variety of more than possible grounds.

What thoughts are born about this?
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First, let me remind you that initiatives about equating websites to the media come from above not for the first year - it’s good to start a separate tag for them or something ... However, before the stage like now - to take such an initiative in the first reading in the State Duma did not reach yet. But it came, it came.

Secondly, just now, in the pre-election year, investigations and disclosures appearing on the Internet, and just journalism, are inconvenient, giving various thoughts to the public, deviating from the party line, are inconvenient for some people ... It is clear that if only special people from a narrow circle of holders of journalistic certificates, and even with a special license, which is not given to everyone - that's when many people could legally shorten the language immediately . In order to see, and a sort of a law is being started . But it will be a shame if the law is accepted with political intentions, and ordinary people and their websites will suffer from it. Where it says “licensing”, it is not difficult to read “bribe-taking”.

Thirdly, it is still the first reading, not the last. It's not the end of the world, that's for sure. Perhaps the matter will become clearer, and it turns out that the article in Kommersant overdramatized the situation. Again, all interested parties still have time to convince a deputy, so that in the current form these amendments will not live to see the second reading.

But the news is grim, and we need to look closely at the development of events.