Pneumonia Plague Rumor-Mongerer Arrested in Russia

by Mike Smith · 2009-12-04 11:17:00 UTC
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You may think that the internet is the perfect tool to track the spread of pandemics, warn people, and use the power of a search engine like Google to track who's searching where to monitor, for example, the spread of the H1N1 virus. But there is something rotten in the state of Russia.

Global Voices report that a 22-year-old medical student and blogger has been arrested for writing about a plague of supposed pneumonia cases. He stands accused of disseminating false information relating to an act of terrorism! He said in a post: "Turns out we may have a plague ... Do our authorities tell the truth when they dismiss this information?"

It's irresponsible of Russia to limit free speech here, and block public discussion, especially in a situation where people need to be able to discuss their fears and air their voices, even if governments fear it will lead to a panic. This strong-armed responses will only fan the flames of fear, and make more people more worried about why someone is facing terrorism charges for simply writing a post on his livejournal questioning an official version of events. With pneumonia killing a child every 15 seconds, authorities must gain the trust of citizens so that when the worst does happen, citizens will listen, and will trust the information they receive. Jailing students for writing blog-posts isn't clever policy.

Photo credit: Scott Feldstein

Mike Smith
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