Prosecutor’s Office of Vologda, northwestern Russia, has launched a criminal case against an editor of a local newspaper for republishing scandalous Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, Gazeta.ru reported.
The journalist Anna Smirnova is accused of provoking religious hatred and abuse of authority.
On Feb. 15 Nash Region+ (Our Region+) paper published cartoons found in the Internet to illustrate a feature story "Cartoon War: Opinions" that contained interviews with a number of prominent public figures.
Nash region+ has become the second newspaper in Russia, involved in the scam. Earlier this month authorities of the central Russian city of Volgograd closed a municipal daily that had published its own cartoon featuring Christ, Moses, Buddha and Mohammad.
Media control officials have already warned journalists that press may face various measures, even denial of registration, for the publication of materials insulting to religious sentiment.
