 Russia's
ruling party has proposed legislation to increase censorship for children, the
BBC Russian service has reported.
TV and radio news programs featuring episodes of violence,
destruction, disasters, death and the like should be put off-air during
daytime because they are harmful for children's psychology, said
the draft legislation proposed by the United Russia party.
The proposed legislation submitted defines daytime as a period from
6am to 10pm.
After 10pm, TV programs should be accompanied with a warning about
the dangerous content of the upcoming program.
Dangerous content is defined as those promoting drugs,
smoking, alcohol, gambling, prostitution, begging and vagrancy as well
as materials that deny family values or provoke people into
committing crimes.
The bill proposed that the first and the last pages of printed media
should not bear any information that might be harmful for children's
health. Otherwise, these editions must be sold in non-transparent
covers, as must be adult magazines.
Experts said some definitions in the proposal are too vogue,
and if the bill becomes law, it will result in banning nearly all the
news programs.
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Campaigners
accused the Kremlin today of killing off the last vestiges of independent
television in Russia, after it emerged that the two remaining private TV
channels would come under state control next year.
