Russian State Duma drafts a bill on alienation of terrorists' property in favour of victims

After the terror acts in Moscow and Kizlyar, the State Duma of the Russian Federation started development of the bill, which assumes compensation of damage to terror act victims, and found it necessary to properly organize the coverage by mass media of emergencies in Russia.

In particular, now the work is underway with the bill according to which the terrorists' property will be confiscated in favour of victims.

As reported by Vladimir Vasiliev, one of the authors of the bill and head of committee on security, the idea is to put the conditions in place to ensure the victim's compensation claim by the terrorist's property.

Mr Vasiliev has noted that now the issue is not raised after liquidation of a terrorist: "We need a mechanism enabling to collect the terrorist's property in favour of victims and that prohibiting any disappearance of such property, for example, by re-registering it on other relatives," the "NEWSru.com" quotes the head of the committee.

He believes the new bill to be a part of a system of measures aimed to ensure the antiterrorist safety in Northern Caucasus.

The head of the committee has also promised that the deputies will take measures towards better coverage by mass media of emergencies in Russia, including terror acts.

In Mr Vasiliev's opinion, the coverage by some media of the explosions in Moscow metro on March 29 led not to consolidation but split of the nation - just what the aim of terrorists was. He said that the deputies expect a duly weighed position from the journalistic community. At the same time, according to his story, some media and journalists "want to become heroes" by benefiting from extreme situations.

He offered either to take particular measures by the State Duma in relation to journalists and heads of some mass media or to address the problem at the legislative level, having emphasized that this sort of information policy was pursued by the British authorities after the terror acts in London underground and their US counterparts after September 11, 2001, as the "Interfax" reports.

Mikhail Fedotov, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, said in his comments on Vladimir Vasiliev's statements that his organization is ready to consider deputies' claims to the cases of unethical coverage by some mass media of terror acts in Moscow metro, provided the MPs name particular journalists, media and publications.

He also reminded that in 2001 the Union of Journalists of Russia adopted a document stipulating the ethical principles of journalists' behaviour in covering terror acts.