JURIST - Paper Chase: Sunday, July 29, 2012

[JURIST] A lawmaker from the centrist political party United Russia [political website, in Russian] on Friday announced a bill that would ban the media from disclosing the ethnic backgrounds of suspects, victims and other individuals during reports on crimes and trials. The law was proposed [Moscow Times report] by State Duma [official website, in Russion] Deputy Shamsail Saraliyev [Council of Europe profile], who described the bill effort to reduce racial violence [Izvestia report, in Russian]. Saraliyey, a Chechnyan who served as a press and information minister prior to his service in the Duma, contends that the media's emphasis on nationality provokes ethnic conflicts, and that the bill he plans to submit in the fall will likely garner a majority of support from the North Caucasus. Experts rejecting the lawmaker's reasoning include Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin's human rights council and co-author of Russia's media law, who maintains that such an issue should be reserved for the media industry rather than the government.

This is not the first time the Russian media has faced a controversial bill limiting the scope of its reporting. In March the State Duma considered adopting a law [JURIST report] that would ban the media's spread of "homosexual propaganda" to minors, and impose fines of up to 500,000 rubles (USD $16,500) for promoting the homosexual lifestyle. In February, St. Petersburg adopted a similar bill [JURIST report] that imposes fines against those convicted of promoting homosexuality. Proposed [JURIST report] in November, sponsors of the St. Petersburg bill claim that homosexual propaganda "threatens" Russia, thus making the bill a necessity. Ethnic and racial conflicts have not received mass Russian media attention since 2008, when Georgia filed a complaint [JURIST report] against Russia with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] for ongoing violations of the 1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [text] based on its removal of ethnic Georgians from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

[JURIST] The United Nations and the Arab League [official website] on Sunday each expressed concern over the recent increased violence in Syria [JURIST news archive]. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos [official profile] expressed particular concern over the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons at Aleppo [UN News Centre report], Syria's most populous city, where opposition fighters in control of sections of the city have clashed for several days with troops of President Bashar al-Assad [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] after additional tank columns and troop reinforcements were sent in last week. Amos urged all parties to avoid civilian casualties and allow humanitarian access to areas impacted by the violence, on the same day that Arab League Secretary-General Dr. Nabil Elaraby [Arab League backgrounder] reportedly described the ongoing conflict [Reuters report] between troops and rebels in Syria as amounting to war crimes. Dr. Elaraby warned that the perpetrators of such crimes would be held internationally accountable, even as main opposition group Syrian National Council [advocacy website] asks the international community for arms [AP report] to combat al-Assad's weapons.

The Arab League has maintained a watchful eye over the fighting in Syria, and has offered both a Protocol Observer Mission [text, in Arabic, PDF] and an Arab Plan of Action [text, in Arabic, PDF] to ameliorate the situation. Earlier this week Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] accused both government forces and rebels of summarily capturing and killing [JURIST report] opposition forces, in violation of international humanitarian law. In February the UN General Assembly [official website] adopted [JURIST report] the League's plan to bring the situation to a close as soon as possible by encouraging al-Assad to step down. Though the plan has yet to come to fruition, the League found success in January when it reached an agreement with Syrian authorities to release 552 prisoners [JURIST report] detained due to allegations that they were involved in "terrorist" activities. The death toll of civilians in Syria, however, continues to rise despite the November signing of a peace plan [JURIST report] sponsored by the League.

[JURIST] The Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection [official websites] filed an appeal on Friday challenging this week's Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court [official website] ruling [opinion, PDF] that Pennsylvania's new oil and gas law [Act 13 materials] violates the state constitution. The two agencies are questioning whether the judges had erred in stating that the seven municipalities and two council members challenging the constitutionality of Act 13 had grounds to do so [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report]. The court declared that Act 13 unconstitutionally infringed on local municipalities' zoning rights [JURIST report] by placing solely in the hands of state authorities all zoning powers regarding hydraulic fracturing [JURIST news archive], the process of injecting a high pressured mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break through rock and release oil and natural gas. Each agency challenging the ruling is headed by an appointee of Governor Tom Corbett [official website; press release, PDF], who announced the appeal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court [official website] has given no indication to date whether they will consider the appeal.

Fracking has been a contentious issue both in the US and abroad. Three weeks ago, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill [SB 820 materials; JURIST report] that would have lifted the state's ban on fracking. In May, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law [JURIST report] a bill outlawing fracking in the state. In January the New Jersey Legislature passed an amendment to a bill that establishes a one-year ban on fracking [JURIST report]. Legislators re-introduced the bill this year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed legislation last June that would have permanently banned fracking in New Jersey [JURIST report]. In October the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to develop standards [JURIST report] for wastewater discharge from fracking. Last June New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the US government [JURIST report] for its alleged failure to study the risks of fracking. In May 2011 France's lower house approved a nationwide ban on fracking [JURIST report]

[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] granted an emergency order Friday freezing the assets of traders operating in Hong Kong and Singapore. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website; press release] is accusing the brokers of insider trading related to the July 23 acquisition of Canadian oil firm Nexen by China-based CNOOC Limited [corporate websites]. The SEC complaint [complaint, PDF] alleges that the Hong Kong-based firm Well Advantage Limited and other unknown traders engaged in "highly suspicious and highly profitable trading" of Nexen securities based on private insider knowledge of the pending acquisition by CNOOC:

The emergency court order obtained by the SEC freezes the traders’ assets valued at more than $38 million and prohibits the traders from destroying any evidence. The SEC’s complaint charges Well Advantage and the unknown traders with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [Cornell LII backgrounder] and Exchange Act Rule 10b-5. In addition to the emergency relief, the Commission is seeking a final judgment ordering the traders to disgorge their ill-gotten gains with interest, pay financial penalties, and permanently bar them from future violations.

The SEC has revealed that the parties purchased a combination of over 1.5 million shares for a realized and unrealized trading profit totaling more than $13 million, based on actual shares sold and Nexen’s closing price on the day of the announcement.

The SEC has been prioritizing its recent crack down on insider trading in recent years. Last month investment research firm executive Tai Ngyuen pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to insider trading in Galleon probe associated with the conviction of hedge fund executive Raj Rajaratnam [JURIST news archive]. Also last month former Goldman Sachs [corporate website] director Rajat Gupta was convicted [JURIST report] of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, also in connection with Rajaratnam. Several other defendants have pleaded guilty in connection with that case. Former hedge fund consultant Danielle Chiesi pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in January. Former IBM senior vice president Robert Moffat was sentenced to six months in prison in September and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine for his role in the scheme after pleading guilty [JURIST reports] in March 2010. Former Intel Capital executive Rajiv Goel pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to insider trading charges in February 2010. Rajaratnam, Chiesi, Goel and Moffat were arrested in October 2009 and charged [complaint, PDF] along with two other individuals and two business entities with insider trading. The complaint alleged that the individuals provided Galleon Group and another hedge fund with material nonpublic information about several corporations upon which the funds traded, generating $25 million in illicit gain. Rajaratnam and Chiesi originally pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] in December 2009 after being indicted for insider trading.