13 February 2009, 22:00
Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia to oblige "Ingushetia.Org" get registered as mass medium
The Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia is going to oblige the owners of the website "Ingushetia.Org" to register the website as a mass medium. However, Rosa Malsagova, owner and editor-in-chief of the website, is sure that under the law such registration can only be voluntary.
In the opinion of Yuri Turygin, Public Prosecutor of Ingushetia, "the Internet edition 'Ingushetia.Org' is a mass medium and is subject to registration procedure as a mass medium. Since it is not registered, we'll oblige them to get registered as a mass medium under the current legislation."
"We keep an eye on 'Ingushetia.Org' and monitor its publications. Should we conclude that they are of extremist character, we'll sue them," said Mr Turygin.
Rosa Malsagova, owner and editor-in-chief of the "Ingushetia.Org", has stated in her turn that the law assumes only voluntary registration of a website as a mass medium. She asserts that the Public Prosecutor's statements are another attempt to close the website.
"We're not a mass medium as such; it should have been understood long ago. There's not a single professional journalist employed, and never was any, the website is run by volunteers, who're spending their efforts, nerves and time to support the Internet resource," Ms Malsagova has explained.
According to her story, the website sticks "to one and the same course: to cover the real situation that we have today in the territory of Ingushetia". "As best as we can, we try to consolidate the society, help the President, but we never remove critical materials that we have," Rosa Malsagova has emphasized.
In the opinion of the editor-in-chief, in future, with changes in the legislation, the site can be registered. She has added that Yuri Turygin's utterances will have no effect on the concept and content of the website, as the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.