Initiative of Chechen Parliament on criminals' nationalities sparks rights defenders' dispute

The frequent mentioning of criminals' nationalities in media has no sense, and only incites people's hatred, Svetlana Gannushkina believes. Nationality affects a person's character and behaviour, Alexei Simonov is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Chechen MPs brought a bill to the Russian State Duma offering to prohibit the disclosure of criminals' nationalities and religion in media and on the Internet, and to bring violators of the ban to administrative responsibility.

Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civil Assistance" Committee*, in principle, agrees that a law regulating the mentioning of a criminals' ethnic data should be adopted.

"I am in favour of not naming one's ethnicity. Moreover, it often has no matter and only incites hatred among people," Ms Gannushkina believes.

In his turn, Alexei Simonov, the president of the "Glasnost Defence" Fund*, doubts that there is a need to regulate the issue of mentioning criminals' nationalities by means of laws.

In his opinion, in some crimes one's nationality matters, in others – it does not. "The assertion that a criminal has no nationality is stupid. Nationality often affects his character, behaviour, etc. It is dangerous to regulate this issue by bans, as it will interfere with the identification of the truth," Mr Simonov has stated.

*The organization has been put by the Russian Ministry of Justice on the register of non-commercial organizations (NCOs) performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 24, 2021 at 09:48 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.