Russian journalist walks free as drugs charges dropped after outcry

Yahoo – AFP, Anna SMOLCHENKO, June 11, 2019

Russian investigative journalist Ivan Golunov walks free from a Moscow police
station after drug charges against him are dropped (AFP Photo/Vasily MAXIMOV)

Moscow (AFP) - A Russian investigative journalist walked free late Tuesday after authorities in Moscow dropped drug charges against him in a rare climbdown by law enforcement following a public outcry.

Ivan Golunov, a reporter with independent media outlet Meduza, walked out of the gates of a Moscow police building to cheers from waiting journalist and wept as he thanked supporters.

"This all happened so quickly and thank you for that, that you supported me. I think it somehow influenced the course of events," Golunov said, with tears running down his cheeks.

He said he hoped his case would change police practices and "such situations will not happen again to anyone in this country."

The journalist vowed to continue his investigative reporting for Meduza, which is based in EU-member Latvia to allow it to work more freely.

"I will be doing investigations because I have to justify the trust of those who supported me," he said.

The 36-year-old was detained last week on charges supporters said were trumped up to punish him for his investigative work and placed under house arrest.

The case sparked outrage in Russia and abroad over what critics slammed as the impunity and corruption of law enforcement agencies.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said Golunov was to be released from house arrest and charges against him lifted.

Kolokoltsev also said he would ask President Vladimir Putin to sack the head of a Moscow police department and another senior official in charge of drug control in the capital.

The EU welcomed the news, with a European Commission spokesperson calling it a "positive outcome", but demanding a probe into reports police beat Golunov in detention.

Journalists and activists reacted with joy.

The arrest triggered a public outcry, and Russia's most respected newspapers on 

Monday publishing headlines reading "I am (we are) Ivan Golunov" (AFP Photo/

Yuri KADOBNOV)

"This is victory... I'm crying," said Meduza editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny called it "an inspiring and motivating example of what simple solidarity... can achieve".

Golunov's Meduza colleague Ilya Zhegulev told AFP: "An unbelievable event has happened."

"Even the most optimistic didn't believe this would happen, and happen so quickly."

Arrest sparked outrage

Golunov had been charged with attempting to deal a "large amount" of drugs and was placed under house arrest at the weekend, facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The reporter said he was beaten in detention. His lawyers alleged drugs had been planted on him to justify his arrest.

Moscow police admitted photographs published on its website that they said showed drug paraphernalia found at the crime scene were not taken at Golunov's flat.

Golunov's lawyer Sergei Badamshin said Golunov's fingerprints were not found on any of the items police said they seized during a search of his flat.

The officers who arrested Golunov last week have been suspended pending an investigation, Kolokoltsev said.

"I believe that irrespective of any citizen's professional activities his rights should always be protected," the minister added.

After Golunov's arrest, hundreds protested outside a court and the Moscow police headquarters.

Supporters had organised a march to happen in Moscow for Wednesday to press for his freedom. But Golunov as he walked free said he would prefer supporters spend time with "loved ones and family."

Journalists and activists reacted with joy to Gulonov's release (AFP Photo/

Vasily MAXIMOV)

'We are Ivan Golunov'

The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders hailed what it called the "historic mobilisation of the Russian civil society".

"Now those who tried to set him up must be judged," the NGO wrote on Twitter.

"We are happy that the authorities listened to society," the editorial team of Meduza and several other prominent journalists said in a statement. "This is just the beginning, a lot of work lies ahead."

As part of an unprecedented campaign of solidarity, major newspapers Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK published the same front page on Monday with headline "I am/we are Ivan Golunov" in giant letters.

Even some staunchly pro-Kremlin television journalists such as RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan expressed support for the independent reporter.

Golunov has investigated everything from Russia's shady funeral industry to corruption at Moscow city hall.

His release came a month after days of protests forced authorities to backtrack over plans to build a controversial new cathedral in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

During his two decades in power, Putin has silenced most of his critics and sought to muzzle the media.

The few opposition and independent media that still operate in Russia are under huge pressure, Kremlin critics say.

The Meduza website is based in Latvia to circumvent censorship, but some of its journalists like Golunov live in Russia.

Turkey YouTube ban violated freedom of expression: Europe court

Yahoo – AFP, 1 december 2015

A Turkish court had barred access to video-sharing site YouTube over 10 videos
 deemed insulting to modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
(AFP Photo/Samantha Sin)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Turkey had violated conventions on freedom of expression when it banned YouTube for more than two years.

An Ankara court had barred access to the video-sharing site from May 2008 to October 2010 over 10 videos deemed insulting to modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Strasbourg-based rights tribunal said.

"Blocking without a legal basis users' access to YouTube infringed the right to receive and impart information," it said, ruling on a case brought by three Turkish law professors.

"The court also found that there was no provision in the law allowing the domestic courts to impose a blanket blocking order on access to the Internet, and in the present case to YouTube, on account of one of its contents."

The lengthy ban on YouTube -- and thousands of other websites -- had prompted widespread concern about freedom of expression under then prime minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who critics say has become increasingly authoritarian.

Before the ban, YouTube had been the fifth most popular site in Turkey.

Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been repeatedly criticised for using court orders to block critical websites, topping a Google table for content removal requests.

Last year the search engine also accused Turkey of intercepting its Internet domain, redirecting users to other sites.

The government blocked Twitter and YouTube in March 2014 after they were used to spread a torrent of audio recordings implicating Erdogan -- then premier -- and his inner circle in an alleged corruption scandal.

Turkey's parliament in March also approved legislation to tighten the government's control over the Internet by allowing it to block websites without prior judicial authorisation, sparking outrage both at home and abroad and a condemnation from the country's Constitutional Court.

Erdogan has also made no secret of his disdain for social networks, comparing them to a "murderer's knife" and once famously vowing to "eradicate" Twitter.

The European court said in its ruling Tuesday that "YouTube was a single platform which enabled information of specific interest, particularly on political and social matters, to be broadcast.

"It was therefore an important source of communication and the blocking order precluded access to specific information which it was not possible to access by other means."

Related Article:

Third Turkish journalist arrested amid fears of Ankara censorship: reports

Third Turkish journalist arrested amid fears of Ankara censorship: reports

Local media has reported that a third Turkish reporter has been arrested, amid concern Ankara is cracking down on free speech. Yesterday, protesters took to the streets following the arrest of two other journalists.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Nov 2015

Ertugrul Ozkok, a reporter for the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, was arrested following an allegedly slanderous article criticizing the country's president, local media and German news agency DPA reported.

Ozkok (pictured) had written a critical column in September that was presumed to have been directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though it didn't actually use the politician's name. He faces up to five years and four months in prison.

The news follows growing concern that Erdogan's government is cracking down on free speech in Turkey. Just two days ago, two other journalists working for a different publication were also arrested.

Public backlash

Following the earlier arrests, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in front of the Istanbul office of the Cumhuriyet newspaper in solidarity with the journalists.

The publication's editor in chief, Can Dundar, and its Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, were sent to prison on Thursday, following the publication of photos reportedly showing Turkish trucks delivering arms to Syrian militants.

President Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against the journalists after information was leaked suggesting that the trucks were indeed delivering arms or ammunition to Turkmen fighters in Syria. Prosecutors subsequently launched a criminal probe into the two.

Their arrest also prompted a response from the US Embassy in Turkey.

Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner: We are troubled by pre-trial arrest of editors of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. https://t.co/FF9I9X8bpY

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 27, 2015

Protesters on Saturday said Erdogan's government was trying to "silence" free speech, as well as cover up a government scandal.

blc/rc (dpa, AP, AFP)

#UPDATE Putin accuses Turkey of shooting down Russian warplane to protect IS oil trade https://t.co/bgM3u3WPXM pic.twitter.com/ZFGOe7aWeY

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 30, 2015

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2015 Kryon Kundalini Tour (Cusco #2, Peru) - Nov, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New (Reference to Paris/ISIS/Dark-Old Energy/USA+Warning for Governments around the World !!!)

Tajik vote overshadowed by ruble slump

Voters have cast ballots in Tajikistan for a new parliament likely to be held by President Emomali Rakhmon's secularists. Many migrant Tajiks have returned to the Central Asian nation because of Russia's economic slump.

Deutsche Welle, 1 March 2015

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan voted on Sunday with few signs of genuine parliamentary opposition to the 22-year-old rule of President Rakhmon. Election results are expected on Monday morning local time.

Campaigning had been hardly visible, said monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They added that online news sources had been "intermittently blocked" and local journalists were practicing "self-censorship," fearing intimidation.

Rakhmon's secular government defeated Islamist rebels in a bitter 1992-97 civil war. In the last election in 2010, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), which includes many former fighters, won only two seats.

Its leader, Muhiddin Kabiri, said the IRPT hope to win at least five seats to form its own parliamentary caucus or faction - despite what he said were attempts to "blacken" the party's reputation via social media.

Firm hold in past parliament

Rakhmon won a fourth term
as president in 2013

Since 2010, Rakhmon's People's Democratic Party has held 55 mandates in the 63-seat Assembly of Representatives, parliament's lower chamber.

The president himself was re-elected in 2013 to a fourth seven-year term.

Voters thronged to polling stations in sunny weather in the capital Dushanbe on Sunday, with some expressing fears about their economic prospects.

Extra jobs for returning migrants

During campaigning, the government promised 200,000 extra jobs for Tajiks returning from Russia, where manual jobs, such as cleaning and snow clearing, no longer generate adequate remittances given the ruble's sharp decline.

Money sent to families back home has until recently accounted for up to half of Tajikistan's gross domestic product (GDP).

Russia's economy has suffered under Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine crisis and plunging prices worldwide for oil and gas sales.

A migrant workers' association in the western Russian city of Saint Petersburg said last week that migrants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were increasingly adverse to "meager" pay.

Social tensions

Tajik political analysts have warned that social tensions could rise further in Tajikistan as a result.

Alexander Knyazev, a Central Asian analyst, said a return of a large number of disgruntled workers might leave President Rakhmon facing social unrest.

Tajikistan, a mountainous nation of 8.3 million people, hosts 7,000 Russian soldiers, making it the largest contingent stationed abroad outside Crimea.

ipj/gsw (dpa, Reuters, AFP)

Turkey bans reporting on parliamentary graft body

A Turkish court has banned reporting on a parliamentary probe into corruption allegations against four ex-ministers in Recep Tayyip Erdogan's previous cabinet. Turkey's opposition says the move protects "thieves."

Deutsche Welle, 26 November 2014

Turkey's Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) told Turkey's media on Wednesday that they were banned from reporting on a parliamentary inquiry into corruption allegations against four former ministers.

Media were also told that they face penalties for violating the prohibition and that the prohibition remained in place until December 27.

In a statement on its website, the RTUK said the ban was necessary because some media reports had "violated the confidentiality of the investigation and the principle of presumption of innocence."

Scores detained last year

Last December, police investigating illegal building permits awarded in Istanbul detained scores of suspects.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister at the time of the arrests and then the winner of Turkey's presidential election in August, has repeatedly claimed that the parliamentary probe was part of an attempted "judicial coup" by the US-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. The Islamic cleric has denied involvement.

The interior, environment and economy ministers - respectively: Muammer Guler, Erdogan Bayraktar and Zafer Caglayan - stepped down in December 2013 after police rounded up their sons on charges of bribery linked to construction projects and illicit money transfers to neighboring Iran.

As prime minister at the time, Erdogan also removed from his cabinet the-then EU affairs minister Egemen Bagis.

Smuggled gold?

Investigators alleged that Caglayan, for example, took a 210,000-euro Patek Philippe watch to facilitate smuggling of gold to Iran in breach of international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear program.

He paid a fine of 250,000 Turkish liras ($110,000/90,000 euros) for "violating the customs and import regulations," the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Monday. Prosecutors have since dropped the charges against the 53 individuals named, but the commission of inquiry is still set to carry out its probe.

IPI: gag order on #Turkey corruption inquiry likely to harm principles it seeks to advance http://t.co/JN0h8nnEMH @ekizilkaya @KadriGursel
— FreeMediaFreeWorld (@globalfreemedia) November 26, 2014

'Protecting thieves'

Turkish courts frequently block coverage of controversial issues. In July, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said courts issued 150 gag orders in four years.

Officials say the latest commission, however, has failed to summon the suspects and witnesses involved in the corruption investigation to give their testimonies, and accuse members of parliament of seeking the ban for their own personal and professional reasons.

In the summer, the government ordered
the arrests of several investigating officers

The Turkish Journalists' Association has called the ban censorship.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu publicly accused parliament speaker Cemil Cicek of asking for the ban, though the head of the commission, dominated by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, said that he had called for the ban.

"Since when has parliament taken the role of protecting thieves?" Kilicdaroglu said on Wednesday.

Newspapers to defy ban

Some left-leaning media have vowed to defy the ban. The newspaper Cumhuriyet has promised "twice as much news."

Erdogan, now the head of state, has recently found himself in hot water over comments that many took as being anti-feminist.

Turkey's successor regime, still very loyal to its former prime minister, has sought to expand the government's policing powers.

mkg/ (Reuters, AFP)

Britain 'attempts to censor' US report on torture sites

US Senate report may confirm that Diego Garcia was used for extraordinary rendition after 9/11

The Guardian, The Observer, Jamie Doward and Ian Cobain, Saturday 2 August 2014

Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, is known to have
detention facilities. Photograph: Corbis

The government stands accused of seeking to conceal Britain's role in extraordinary rendition, ahead of the release of a declassified intelligence report that exposes the use of torture at US secret prisons around the world.

The Senate report on the CIA's interrogation programme, due to be released in days, will confirm that the US tortured terrorist suspects after 9/11. In advance of the release, Barack Obama admitted on Friday: "We tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values."

Now, in a letter to the human rights group Reprieve, former foreign secretary William Hague has confirmed that the UK government has held discussions with the US about what it intends to reveal in the report which, according to al-Jazeera, acknowledges that the British territory of Diego Garcia was used for extraordinary rendition.

"We have made representations to seek assurances that ordinary procedures for clearance of UK material will be followed in the event that UK material provide[d] to the Senate committee were to be disclosed," Hague wrote.

Cori Crider, a director at Reprieve, accused the UK government of seeking to redact embarrassing information: "This shows that the UK government is attempting to censor the US Senate's torture report. In plain English, it is a request to the US to keep Britain's role in rendition out of the public domain."

Lawyers representing a number of terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo Bay believe their clients were rendered via Diego Garcia. Papers found in Libya indicated that the US planned to transport Abdul-Hakim Belhaj, an opponent of Muammar Gaddafi, and his wife via the territory, an atoll in the Indian Ocean leased by Britain to the US. The government has denied Belhaj was rendered via Diego Garcia, but there are suspicions that others were held on the atoll.

Crider said the UK's attempts to lobby the US into redacting parts of the report "turns the government's defence in the Libyan renditions case of Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and his wife entirely on its head".

The government has consistently sought to block Belhaj from bringing a case against it.

"The government protested America would be angered if this kidnap case ever went to trial – and now we learn the British government is leaning on the Americans not to air Britain's dirty laundry. It exposes their litigation stance as mere posturing," she added.

Confirmation that a British territory was involved in extraordinary rendition could leave the government vulnerable to legal action. Last month the European court of human rights ruled that the Polish government actively assisted the CIA's European "black site" programme, which saw detainees interrogated in secret prisons across the continent.

The court concluded it was "established beyond reasonable doubt" that Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo detainee the US mistakenly believed to be a senior member of al-Qaida, was flown from a secret site in Thailand to another CIA prison in Stare Kiejkuty in northern Poland.

The judges concluded that not only was Poland "informed of and involved in the preparation and execution of the [High Value Detainee] Programme on its territory", but also "for all practical purposes, facilitated the whole process, created the conditions for it to happen and made no attempt to prevent it", prompting lawyers to ask what else it has been used for since.

Related Articles:

Obama: After 9/11, 'we tortured some folks'

GOP lawmaker: You will ‘rethink everything’ when full 9/11 report is released

Google receives thousands of European requests to 'be forgotten'

Internet giant Google has received more than 12,000 requests from people in Europe wanting past information from their lives to be "forgotten" in online searches. The case pits privacy against freedom of information.

Google opened up an online form late this week that allowed people to ask for certain information to be removed from the search engine's results. Within the first 24 hours, Google confirmed late on Friday, more than 12,000 requests were submitted, sometimes at a rate of more than 20 entries per minute.

Google was responding to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling from May 13, which found that citizens should be able to request this of the company. The ruling applies to the 28 EU member countries, although Google agreed to broaden the catchment area to include Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

"The court's ruling requires Google to make difficult judgments about an individual's right to be forgotten and the public's right to know," a Google spokesman said.

The case of a Spanish man who objected to the fact that searches of his name revealed links to an old newspaper article about the repossession of his home prompted the ECJ to issue the advisory ruling. Data protection representatives from the EU's 28 members are due to discuss the ruling's implications in a two-day meeting next week.

Any data "forgotten" by Google, which mostly provides links to material published by others, is not deleted or removed from the Internet - only from Google search results.

Past privacy rulings

Advocates hailed the decision as an advancement of personal privacy in the Internet age, while critics have either said it amounts to censorship, or that it could serve to help the rich, powerful or criminal to conceal information.

In January, a German court ordered Google to block search results in German linking to photos of a role-playing sex-party, set in a prison environment, involving former FIA President Max Mosley. France had issued a similar court order to Google on the Mosley case late last year.

The former head of motorsport's global governing body, also a key Formula One figure for more than a decade, survived an FIA members' vote of confidence in 2008 related to the scandal, first reported in Britain's now-defunct Sunday paper the News of the World. However, in 2009, Mosley agreed not to run for a fifth term as FIA president.

msh/rc (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Turkey set to amend contentious Internet law

Google – AFP, Fulya Ozerkan (AFP), 18 February 2014

A protester holds a placard reading, "Everywhere blackout, everywhere filter", during

a protest against Turkish government's newly proposed restrictions on the use of

Internet, on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul, on February 8, 2014 (AFP/File, Ozan Kose)

Ankara — Turkey's government is planning to amend a contentious bill tightening controls over the Internet in an apparent backtrack in the face of widespread opposition.

Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan signalled changes to the legislation at a meeting with political parties in parliament on Tuesday, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

An opposition lawmaker confirmed the planned amendments to aspects of the bill concerning some powers of Turkey's telecommunications authority.

"The steps are positive but not enough," Akif Hamzacebi of the Republican People's Party (CHP) was quoted as saying by NTV television.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip

Erdogan gestures at members of parliament

 from his ruling AK Party during a meeting at

 the Turkish parliament in Ankara on

February 18, 2014 (AFP, Adem Altan)

Under the bill, the Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB) can demand that Internet providers block pages deemed insulting or considered an invasion of privacy.

But the government is now proposing that the TIB will have to inform a judge about any decision to block a web page.

The judge would then have to issue a ruling within 48 hours or the TIB move would be deemed invalid, Hurriyet said.

The Internet bill has sparked outrage both at home and abroad and fuelled concerns over the state of democracy in the EU-hopeful country under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The legislation came on top of moves to curb the judiciary and a government purge of police and prosecutors in the face of corruption probe that has targeted close Erdogan allies.

The Internet bill could now either be vetoed by President Abdullah Gul and sent back to parliament to include the planned amendments, or it could be approved by the president and the amended clauses could be inserted in a separate batch of laws.

Observers say the second option appears more likely because Gul has indicated that he will sign into law both the Internet and judiciary measures.

Gul said that while he intended to raise concerns over "problematic clauses" in both bills, it was not his place to challenge the legislation.

- 'News will self-destruct' -

"As president, I cannot put myself into the position of the constitutional court," Hurriyet quoted him as saying, referring to opposition plans to challenge the legislation in Turkey's highest court.

Leading daily Radikal launched an online campaign to protest at the Internet curbs, erasing news stories, pictures and columns from its website once every four hours.

The campaign refers to the timeframe initially proposed for the TIB to be able to block a webpage under emergency measures.

"We will have a new motto like in the Mission Impossible movie," Radikal editor-in-chief Eyup Can wrote in his column, referring to the film's catchphrase "This message will self destruct in five seconds".

"This news story will self destruct by TIB in four hours," he said.

Erdogan has vehemently denied accusations of online censorship, and said Tuesday the proposed Internet curbs were aimed at countering "blackmail" and "threats".

"The Internet will not be censored, freedoms will not limited," Erdogan told his lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament.

He said the number of Internet subscribers in predominantly Muslim Turkey had swelled to 34 million from 20,000 since the AKP came to power in 2002.

Defenders of the law say the new restrictions protect individual rights while critics argue they amount to nothing more than a fresh assault on freedom of expression and an attempt to stifle dissent.

Related Article:

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

Internet governance too US-centric, says European commission

Commission says NSA revelations call into question US role in internet governance, which should be more global

The Guardian, Ian Traynor in Brussels, Wednesday 12 February 2014

Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital affairs. Photograph:
Stephanie Lecocq/EPA

The mass surveillance carried out by the US National Security Agency means that governance of the internet has to be made more international and less dominated by America, the European Union's executive has declared.

Setting out proposals on how the world wide web should function and be regulated, the European commission called for a shift away from the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which is subject to US law, is contracted by the US administration and is empowered to supervise how digital traffic operates.

"Recent revelations of large-scale surveillance have called into question the stewardship of the US when it comes to internet governance," said the commission.

"Given the US-centric model of internet governance currently in place, it is necessary to broker a smooth transition to a more global model while at the same time protecting the underlying values of open multi-stakeholder governance …

"Large-scale surveillance and intelligence activities have led to a loss of confidence in the internet and its present governance arrangements."

Besides criticising US domination of how the internet and digital traffic are organised, including the allocation and determination of domain names, the Brussels institution also warned against increasing governmental attempts to control the internet, as in China, Russia, Iran and increasingly Turkey, which passed a stringent law last week curbing online freedoms.

"Governments have a crucial role to play, but top-down approaches are not the right answer. We must strengthen the multi-stakeholder model," said Neelie Kroes, the commissioner for digital affairs. "Our fundamental freedoms and human rights are not negotiable. They must be protected online."

She spoke out against giving the United Nations the power to organise and supervise the internet or to grant such authority to the International Telecommunications Union, voicing fears that it would confer too much power on governments.

The commission called for a clear timeline for diluting US authority over Icann and making it more "global"; for agreement on "a set of principles of internet governance to safeguard the open and unfragmented nature of the internet"; and a mediation body that would scrutinise conflicts arising from contradictory national jurisdictions over the internet.

Decisions over domain names and IP addresses should also be globalised, Brussels said. "The next two years will be critical in redrawing the global map of internet governance," said Kroes.

Brussels is to take its proposals to an international conference on the issue in Brazil in April. Brazil, angered by the NSA revelations, has been highly critical of the US role in internet governance.

"Nearly every person has an interest in keeping the internet open, whether this is an economic, social or human rights interest," said Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal MEP who sits on an international body examining internet governance.

"Governments are trying to bring the internet under national control. States like Russia and China use the argument of increasing cyber-security to increase control over their own population. Organisations such as Icann, which registers domain names worldwide, currently function under US law. That has to change."

Sochi boss admits five-ring circus TV cover-up

Google –AFP, 7 February 2014

The Olympic rings are presented during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter

 Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium on February 7, 2014 in Sochi (AFP,

 Jonathan Nackstrand)

Sochi — Russian television chief Konstantin Ernst admitted that TV pictures of the Olympic rings glitch at Friday's opening ceremony were doctored but that it was an open secret.

The ceremony, beamed to an estimated TV audience of two billion, got off to a rocky start when one of five illuminated snowflakes suspended above the Fisht stadium and that were supposed to morph into the five Olympic rings failed to materialise.

That left the embarrassing sight of four giants rings and one smaller snowflake dangling in a corrupted representation of the Olympic movement's defining symbol.

But Ernst brushed off the incident and explained that organisers had already prepared for such an emergency after sweating for three weeks to get the image just right.

"The pictures were not edited. There was a version that you saw in the crowd and a version that viewers saw," said Ernst, the powerful boss of Russia's Channel One TV.

"We realised that the fifth ring was not going to light up so the mobile TV van sent a signal to the station and we decided to use footage we had already shot before.

"It's not a scandal -- it's an open secret. It took us three weeks to make it work. One component failed but it did not insult anyone."

The charismatic Ernst even turned to Buddhism to support his claims.

"There is a saying that you have to kick out the uneven part of a perfectly polished ball to understand how perfect it is," he said.

"That was the ceremony. It allowed us to show how perfect the rest of the show was."

Ernst brought rousing applause from Russian reporters when he denounced western media for trying to liken the technical failure to the ability of Russia to put on an Olympic Games.

"It is ridiculous to concentrate on one snowflake; it did not stop people from enjoying the show. Many people thought Russia could not put on such a sophisticated show.

"This showed the new Russia and how different we are from the previous years."

Ernst also admitted he was aware that Turkey had scrambled an F-16 jet to force down an airliner from Ukraine when an apparently drunk would-be hijacker ordered it to Sochi.

The Ukrainian man, brandishing what he said was a detonator, tried to gain access to the cockpit of the aircraft operated by Turkey's Pegasus Airlines with 110 people on board, officials said.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported that the man, 45, was inebriated and had neither a gun nor explosives.

"I knew of it but I didn't want the performers in the ceremony to be distracted. We had enough adenaline in our veins already," said the 53-year-old Ernst.