Russia looks abroad for web laws, including to China

[The Northerner]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is looking to the experience of other countries, including China, to "regulate" Internet use, though Moscow has no plans to broaden web censorship, a government spokesman said on Saturday.

Weeks after hacker attacks temporarily closed down the country's most popular blog site, a state tender calling for research into "foreign experience in regulating" the Internet has revived fears that authorities plan to clamp down on Internet freedoms ahead of 2012 presidential elections.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said the tender was in no way an indication that Moscow wanted insight into Internet censorship.

"It is enough to look at those resources that exist in the Russian Internet to see that there is no censorship there," he said. Peskov said researchers would study best practices in Internet regulation of other countries, including China.

In a country where much media is state-run, the Internet is one of the last bastions of free speech. Russian bloggers freely criticize authorities, often scathingly, question high-level corruption and swap information.

Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/russia-looks-abroad-laws-including-china-20110416-090957-573.html