The Investigative Committee plans to spend 1.1 million rubles ($36,300) on monitoring media and social networking sites in 2013, with more than 3,000 publications to be analyzed, news reports said Monday.
According to a report on Lenta.ru, the Investigative Committee will focus on, among other things, media that "offer criticism in relation to the Investigative Committee," "criticize government and law enforcement bodies" and "commit crimes against children."
The committee has hired Integrum, a company specializing in providing business information and media analysis, to conduct the monitoring, Lenta reported. Integrum was also the only firm that took part in the tender for the contract, which on the state procurement website cites 720,000 rubles as the price for the work.
An undisclosed source from the Investigative Committee told Vedomosti that such monitoring is necessary in order to evaluate the committee's quality of work, gain information about possible misconduct on the part of its employees, and uncover crimes that demand the organization's reaction.
Over the first nine months of last year, the committee registered 314 alerts about crime in the media.
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