(CJES/IFEX) - On 17 January 2007, the City Court of Abakan ruled that the Khakassian website "Noviy Fokus" ("The New Focus"), belonging to journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, will not be closed down, despite Public Prosecutor Vladimir Dyuzhev's insistence, news agency Khakassia reported. However, the website can continue operating only after it has been registered as a media outlet.
Abakan City Court judge Svetlana Shapovalova upheld the decision of Justice of Peace Marina Khokhlova, excluding the item on the closure of the website.
In her decision, Shapovalova mentioned that "Noviy Fokus" has all the attributes of media and is therefore a media outlet. Based on a note from the Middle-Siberian Department of the Federal Oversight Service for Mass Communications and Cultural Heritage, which states that the registration of Internet-based mass media outlets is voluntary, judge Shapovalova concluded only that the "Noviy Fokus" website had not yet applied for registration but must now do so in order to continue its operations.
The news agency Khakassia also reports that neither the public prosecutor nor the judge found any wrongdoing committed by Sergey Burdyugov, the district police officer who lodged the report on the alleged offence committed by "Noviy Fokus". On 15 January, Burdyugov admitted in court that he had made a mistake in the report when he indicated that the deadline had passed within which "Noviy Fokus" had to be registered.
"I have divided the reasons specified in the decision of Justice of Peace Khokhlova into illegal and absurd," Irina Khrunova, Afanasyev's lawyer and legal analyst of the inter-regional human rights association Agora, told news agency Khakassia. "The absurd decision to close the site was cancelled today, and the owners of 'inconvenient' sites in Russia can sigh with relief. However, the illegal decision on the mandatory registration of a website as a media outlet still remains in force. We shall appeal against this decision in the Supreme Court of Khakassia."
