Satirical cartoons of the Prophet were published in a Danish newspaper last September and subsequently reprinted by other Western media earlier this year, provoking outrage throughout the Muslim world.
Muslims in many countries took to the streets in protest against the publications, which led to the ransacking of Danish and other Western embassies. In Afghanistan, Danish and Norwegian peacekeepers were attacked.
On June 23, an Altai Territory court turned down a lawsuit filed by the regional department of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Legislation in Mass Communications and the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The suit demanded a shutdown of the local Internet news agency Bankfax for allegedly fuelling interethnic hatred.
According to the suit, Bankfax published a provocative commentary by one of its reader's February 17 regarding the scandal, which was critical of the Russian government's position. Russia has taken a hard line against publications deemed insulting to religious sentiment ever since the cartoon controversy.
But Bankfax editor Valery Savenkov said that while the posting contained tough language that could be deemed offensive by some, he said he did not believe it was the author's intention to stir up interethnic discord, but merely to engage in a heated polemic, as is often the case in Internet forums.
