MOSCOW, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Russian deputies on Friday approved tough new media curbs during "anti-terrorist" operations, giving authorities greater control over coverage of crises such as last week's Moscow theatre siege.
The measures, brought to the State Duma lower house of parliament long before last week's mass hostage-taking by Chechen guerrillas, passed a third reading, 231-106. The draft next faces a vote in the upper house Federation Council.
The draft law will again focus attention on President Vladimir Putin's patchy record on media freedoms after controversy over private television channels that were effectively neutered after being critical of his rule.
The Kremlin was angered by media outlets that accused authorities of failing to pursue talks with the guerrillas before launching the raid to free about 800 hostages. Critics also questioned the use of a knockout gas that killed 117 hostages and left hundreds more in hospital.
"I don't think this is a limitation of democratic freedom," said Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the defence and security committee of the Federation Council.
"In such situations, only information from official sources should be used," he said. "Third-hand information should not be broadcast."
It was not immediately clear who would enforce the new rules but Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, who used a newspaper interview on Friday to say the siege had highlighted the need for new rules, appeared the most likely candidate.
"The terrorists had a well-worked-out media plan," he told the Izvestia daily. "They were very well prepared in terms of knowing the Russian media, journalists and newsmakers."
"People's lives are more important than the right to information," Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of Russia's Union of Journalists, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
"If you understand that your words could worsen the hostages' situation, then you should shut up. Keeping quiet is not a problem," he said.
INFORMATION CATEGORIES PROSCRIBED
The new rules specifically prevent the media from publishing information about technology, arms, ammunition and explosives used in anti-terrorist operations. That could have complicated reporting the Moscow theatre siege.
Under the new measures, the media might well have been unable to report the use of a powerful anaesthetic to knock out guerrillas intent on blowing up the theatre if authorities stormed it. Almost 200 hostages remain in hospital.
The United States criticised the delay in identifying the gas, saying secrecy had cost lives. After four days of silence, Russia's top health official confirmed the gas was based on Fentanyl, a powerful opiate used in routine surgery.
The draft media law would bar the dissemination of information that could hamper the conduct of anti-terrorist operations or endanger the lives or health of people involved.
It would also bar the media from quoting individuals seen as threatening the conduct of anti-terrorist operations or any remarks judged as propaganda or seen to justify resistance to counter-terrorist measures.
During the siege, the authorities banned the private NTV channel from broadcasting comments by Movsar Barayev, the commander of the guerrilla force in the theatre.
Nevertheless, most newspapers and national television stations lavished praise on Putin's handling of the crisis, which won 85 percent support in the first post-siege poll.
That contrasted with the savaging the newly installed president received for his initially sluggish response to the August 2000 Kursk nuclear submarine disaster.
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