Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations 4 Zubovsky Boulevard, Moscow 119021, Russia phone: (+ 7 095) 201-7626; 201-3550 comm. 124 fax: (+ 7 095) 201-7626 e-mail: panfilov@monitoring.ru Web site: www.cjes.ru
A HIGH-RISK JOB Weekly report on events in Russian mass media Issue no. 17, May 6 12 , 2002 I. The news of the week in the field of media freedom was dominated by developments around the case of military journalist G. Pasko and the killing of V. Ivanov, editor-in-chief of Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye newspaper. 1. The cassation college of the Supreme Court on May 7 handed out a ruling for which the defense lawyers of military journalist G. Pasko had long been pressing. It declared the Defense Ministry's order No. 010 illegal and order No. 055, not a sound regulation. Order No. 010 of 1990 banned contacts between servicemen knowledgeable of state secrets and foreigners unless such contacts were in the servicemen's line of duty. The order also listed kinds of secret data. Pasko was sentenced for failure to comply with these orders, a misdemeanor that had been construed as to spying. Those who have been sentenced for such offenses may now expect a revision of their cases. Pasko's defense attorney I. Pavlov said that the provisions of the orders banning contacts between servicemen and foreigners had been null and void ever since 1993 when the State Secrets Law had taken effect. Order No. 055 also being null and void, the case had been sent back to the Supreme Court's military college, he said. The Defense Ministry's official K. Rusanov regards the cassation college's ruling in a different light. Order No. 055 is a departmental regulation and so does not apply to civilians but because he was a serviceman, Pasko ought to have been aware of the order, he insists.
2. The last week's Russian press continued publishing comments on the April 29 murder of V. Ivanov, editor-in-chief of Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye newspaper. Tens of thousands assembled for his funeral. Samara oblast Governor K. Titov, Union of Right Forces leader B. Nemtsov, People's Deputy parliamentary leader G. Raikov and journalists from all over Russia sent messages of condolences to Ivanov's family.
Tolyatti city police chief V. Suprun said that Ivanov had run no business, so he had been killed for what his paper had been publishing. The city prosecutor Ye. Novozhilov said that within the last three months the paper had written about nearly all criminal gangs in the city. Ivanov was one of the first regional journalists to write of Tolyatti's criminal gangs, Kommersant newspaper wrote. His reports irritated local authorities because the paper covered in detail the gang wars around the car plant. The paper also spoke of criminal gangs infiltrating local business and politics. The paper's cause celebre was investigation of former city Mayor S. Zhilkin and his business companions. Shortly before his death Ivanov received threats from gang leaders I. Sirotenko known as Sirota (Orphan) and S. Akhmadov, a.k.a. Bibi. Sirota's men were suspected of numerous contract killings. Sirota knew that the paper had been preparing a report on this. The paper also spoke of Akhmadov's gang having links with the central office of the Federal Security Service whose officers released arrested Chechens. The paper's deputy editor-in-chief A. Sidorov told Kommersant that the mayor's adviser A. Abramov had threatened him as well as Ivanov on the telephone. These threats followed reports described a scam in which $300,000 was channeled from municipal enterprise TGK, managed by Abramov's son, into foreign companies. Other people mentioned in the paper's stories may also have killed or contracted killers of Ivanov, Sidorov believes. Numerous Ivanov's opponents intended to infiltrate the authorities, he said.
II. Attacks on Journalists
Attacks on journalists were discussed in depth at an international conference in Kaliningrad's German - Russian House. Numerous attacks in the city have not been solved, V. Ivanov, a leader of the regional Journalists' Association, told the conference. TV company Kaskad's CEO I. Rostov, Kaliningadskiye Novyie Kolyosa editor I. Rudnikov, Kaskad's journalists V. Sazonov and others were attacked in 1998 - 2000. Regional administration official A. Koretsky addressed the conference calling on local journalists to show more responsibility and improve their professional qualities.
III. Legal Persecution of an Editorial Board
A court in Omsk started hearing a suit filed by the city's local history museum against NOS newspaper and researcher I. Shikhatov. The museum is unhappy over the paper publishing Shikhatov's report saying that the readers of Old Omsk album may recognize Emperor Nicholas II in a photograph. There was no indication about who was on the photograph. The museum's experts argue that the man on it is not the emperor. The plaintiff's representative in the court said that the report had done irreparable damage to the museum's business reputation and the publication of another book on the city history is now in jeopardy.
IV. Obstructing Professional Activities
News agency Prima's editor-in-chief A. Podrabinek on May 6 asked the Prosecutor General's Office to bring Moscow's Khamovnichesky Intermunicipal Court Judge I. Yefimova to criminal justice. On April 26 the judge told the agency's correspondent A. Antonov to leave the courtroom where participants in the ecological protest on Red Square were tried. The Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations covered that event in April. In his letter to Prosecutor General V. Ustinov Podrabinek writes: "I request you to act in line with Article 16 of the Judge Status Law and tell the associated college of judges to open a criminal case against Judge Yefimova under Article 144 of the Criminal Code for obstructing a journalist's legitimate professional activities."
V. Protest against the Language of Hatred
The Ryazan School of Human Rights supported by several NGOs staged a picket against "the language of hatred" in city newspapers. This action is part of the project Racism and Xenophobia in Russian Mass Media: Monitoring and Public Action. The pickets invited citizens to sign an appeal to the authorities to invoke legislative acts and take steps to put an end to nationalistic propaganda in Ryazan region. The organizers hope to attract the attention of journalists and the authorities who turn a blind eye to offenses against the constitutional ban on fomenting ethnic hatred.
VI. Pressuring Media
The Vologda oblast Legislative Assembly would not support an appeal by the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District legislature to the Russian president. The appeal headlined On the State Policy in TV and Radio Broadcasts argued that "the activities of TV and radio companies in the Russian Federation is a cause of concern because their bottom line is propaganda of a negative attitude on the part of Russians to their country and subverts the moral, physical and psychic health of individuals." The appeal refers to the Doctrine of Information Security according to which the overriding goal of the state policy in the field of information is "spiritual rebirth of Russia and consolidation of society's moral values, traditions of patriotism." The appeal calls for having air time to cover work done by people in manufacturing industries, agriculture, army, science and health, their merits and problems they face; stepping up the number of state-run TV channels and improve their quality and tightening control over the activities of private TV channels.
VI. Numerous Other Events Made Headlines
1. A group of rebel fighters was detained in Chechnya's village of Dolinskoye, Grozny rural district, who may have had a hand in the abduction of ORT channel journalists Pereverznev and Tibelius in Grozny in 1997.
2. The News of the South TV channel covering the 13 republics, krais and a obslasts in the Southern Federal District started operation on May 7. The channel was set up on the initiative of southern state-run TV and radio companies with support by V. Kazantsev, the president's envoy in the district who believes that the channel will bring the district's residents closer together. The first issue covered, in particular, the developments in Chechnya, the federal program of social and ecological development in southern Russia, renovation work in the war memorial in Volgograd and the rebuilding of the Church of Saint Prince Vladimir in Astrakhan.
3. In an interview with Gazeta newspaper N. Volobuyev, head of the Federal Security Service's counterintelligence operations, said that some of the more than 80 foreign special service personnel exposed in Russia in 2001 were journalists. According to Volobuyev, 31 foreign correspondents accredited in Russia were engaged in "illegal journalistic activities." Eighteen of them will not be able to enter Russia for five years. Their visas have been canceled.
Event
Report by own correspondents Jobunrelated Job-related
Reports by outside sources Verified Unverified
Attacks on journalists
Journalists Killed
Jobunrelated Job-related Journalists detained and arrested Legal and judicial persecution Other kinds of harrasing editorial boards and journalists Restriction of access to Information Initiatives of authorities and NGOs Disappeared journalists
1 (Moscow) 1 (Omsk) 1 (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District)
1 (Moscow) 1 (federal level)