BULLETINS OF CENTER FOR JOURNALISM IN EXTREME SITUATIONS
DANGEROUS PROFESSION: WEEKLY
WEEKLY BULLETIN OF EVENTS IN RUSSIAN MASS-MEDIA ISSUE NO. 47 (408), NOVEMBER 16 - 22, 2009
Author – Analyst Of Center For Journalism In Extreme Situations,
Candidate Of Political Science Mikhail Melnikov (mel@cjes.ru)
I. Events of the Week
1. A rally in support of journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was badly beaten in the Moscow region a year ago, was held in Moscow on November 16. The rally had fifty participants (mostly activists from the Movement In Defense of the Khimki Forest and the party Yabloko. The rally participants were holding slogans saying “Attack against Beketov is Encroachment on Freedom of Speech” and “Attack against Beketov Is Political Terror.”
Mikhail Beketov, editor of the newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, was found unconscious near his apartment building in the village of Starbeyevo, Khimki district, Moscow region, on November 13, 2008. he was diagnosed with a serious head injury and multiple fractures and bruises, despite the treatment, the journalist will remain disabled for the rest of his life (he is unable to serve himself and the speech function has not returned to him).
Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin believes Vladimir Strelchenko, the head of the Khimki City District, and the Moscow region’s Governor Boris Gromov are behind this attack. he called on the Russian president to take the investigation into this crime under his personal control. “As long as civil society activists and leaders are getting killed, civil society will not develop in Russia,” Mitrokhin said.
Yevgeniya Chirikova, leader of the Movement In Defense of the Khimki Forest, reiterated that the masterminds of the attack against Beketov failed to reach their goals because the attack drew a lo of public attention, which, in turn, led to negotiations with foreign investors on alternative routes for road construction bypassing the Khimki forest, Beketov worked on the road construction issue for five years and his work has yielded results, Chirikova said.
2. Komsomolskaya Pravda has run an article containing a photo of a third suspect in the killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova. The photo of the man was taken near the independent press center on November 24, 2008 when Markelov was there to give a press conference on the falsification of the criminal case against anti-fascist Alexei Olesinov. before the press conference, Markelov asked Moscow anti-fascists for protection, which probably saved his life. After the press conference, Markelov’s security guards, who were experienced in dealing with radical activists, noticed a suspicious man. The man could not answer their questions clearly, was nervous and held one hand in his pocket, making it clear that he was armed. The anti-fascists photographed the man and provided the photo to the law enforcement agencies. The photo has been on the website of the Moscow Main Interior Affairs Department for several months.
II. Fatalities among Journalists
The division of the Russian Union of Journalists in the Kaliningrad region has called on the law enforcement agencies to investigate the death of prominent local television journalist Olga Kotovskaya, one of the founders of the regional television company Kaskad, who is believed to have committed suicide. The Russia Union of Journalists believes the suicide theory is convenient, but not the only one.
“The administration of the division of the Russian Union of Journalists in the Kaliningrad region has asked the law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of Olga Kotovskaya and open a criminal case,” an official with the division of the Russian Union of Journalists in the Kaliningrad region said, citing an official statement by the Russian Union of Journalists.
Olga Kotovskaya died on November 16 after falling out of a window on the 14th floor in Kaliningrad. A forensic examination has been scheduled as part of the official probe into this case.
In 1991, Kotovskaya and a group of colleagues created the independent in television company Kaskad, which later developed into a powerful media group comprising two television channels, a daily newspaper, two radio stations, and an advertising agency. Kotovskaya was editor-in-chief and a creative director of the television channel for a long time.
Since 2006, Kotovskaya and her partners Igor Rostov and Svetlana Ryabukha lost control over the television company to a group of people including Vladimir Pirogov, former deputy governor of the Kaliningrad region. Kotovskaya and her partners tried to contest that decision. the region’s Arbitration Court reversed the decision made in the meeting of members of the limited liability company television and Radio Company Kaskad to change the company’s charter, under which the rights to run the company were transferred to its board of directors. Kotovskaya, who was among the plaintiffs in that case, said the protocol of the meeting was falsified.
The new administration of the company accused its predecessors of embezzlement.
Igor Rostov, Kotovskaya’s husband and former co-owner of Kaskad, told Igor Rudnikov, a member of the local parliament, after the death of his wife: “She was murdered. If I am found dead on the rails, do not believe that I committed suicide.” Arbitration Court press officer Igor Belov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta spokesman he finds it strange that Kotovskaya, who was to take part in a new trial seeking the return of the television company, has committed suicide.
The local opposition activists were also categorical. “I do not have the slightest doubt that she was murdered. And she was murdered for her journalistic activities. I cannot imagine that a person who has won the main lawsuit in her life has decided to jump to her death from the 14th floor to her death. The fact that violence against journalists and owners of media outlets ahs become the norm in the Kaliningrad region and is almost never punished should at least attract the attention of the authorities and the appropriate bodies,” Mikhail Chesalin, leader of the local division of Patriots of Russia and a member of the local parliament, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. His colleague Solomon Ginzburg told Nezavisimaya Gazeta Kotovskaya had sought his help a year ago, saying that some high-ranking officially had urged her to stop taking part in the litigation involving the fate of Kaskad.
The investigators have changed their position under pressure from public opinion. Marianna Andryushina, press secretary for the Investigations Committee of the prosecutor’s office of the Kalinigrad region, said the investigators will be considering all possible theories of the crime.
III. Attacks and Threats against Journalists
A group of journalists from the program Vesti (VGTRK) were attacked by security guards in Moscow’s Preobrazhensky market while working on a report on drug dealing in the market on November 17.
● A group of journalists from the program Vesti (VGTRK) were attacked by security guards in Moscow’s Preobrazhensky market while working on a report on drug dealing in the market on November 17, RIA Novosti has reported.
“We were shooting a report on illegal trade in drugs and semidrug substances in Moscow’s markets. Having seen that such substances are sold and having purchased them, we headed to the office of the director of the market to find out on what grounds these substances were sold in the market,” VGTRK journalist Alexander Karpov said.
However, Sergei Artamoshin, deputy director of the Preobrazhensky market, denied any knowledge of illegal drug trade. He refused to discuss that matter and give an interview and ordered his security to get rid of the journalists and break their camera if they refused to leave the market.
The security guards, employees of a private security firm, attacked the journalists and tried to break their camera. People in the market called the police, who stopped the violence against the journalists. Karpov has reported the incident to the law enforcement agencies, The journalists have also sent the drugs they purchased in the market to the Interior Ministry lab for a forensic evaluation.
● “It’s just a provocation by the media. They were prohibited from unsanctioned filming in the market and were removed from the market,” Sergei Artamoshin, deputy director of the Preobrazhensky market, told Ekho Moskvy radio, commenting on the journalists’ actions. “I talked to them and told them that as a state-run unitary enterprise we have no right to allow unsanctioned filming there ad referred them to our department, where they could obtain such permission. They didn’t like that,” he said.
Artamoshin flatly denied the information about the drugs. “What drugs? That’s totally out of the question,” he said.
Artamoshin also said the security guards did not beat the journalists. “We have a video of them leaving the market, everything is clearly seen there. The police are now studying that video,” he said.
On November 17, a report on the journalists’ visit to the market aired on Vesti (VGTRK). The video shows that the journalists were subjected to violence.
IV. Restrictions on Journalists. Pressure on the Media
1. The press service for the Communist Party faction in the State Duma has sent a release entitled “Andrei Karaulov Loses Another Case in Court, but Continues to Avoid Fulfilling Court Rulings” to the information agency Vzglyad-Info. The document accuses State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin of making ungrounded accusations against Andrei Karaulov, the host of the television program Moment Istiny.
The Communist Party press service also said the Karaulov issue has recently been raised by he Communist Duma deputies in the State Duma (the Communist Party deputies accused Karaulov of being pro-United Russia).
“In one of his Moment Istiny programs, journalist Andrei Karaulov again made sharp statements about the Communist Party and V. F. Rashkin. He said Rashkin had five aides who are former representatives of the criminal communities of Saratov. Karaulov and his vis-à-vis Lyamin even said State Duma deputy Rashkin could be involved in some killings. Of course, they did not provide any proof of these versions. However, as Hebbels said, the more improbable a lie is the higher are the chances that someone will believe it,” the release says.
After the program went on air, Rashkin filed a defamation lawsuit with the Saratov region’s Arbitration Court. The court granted the lawsuit and ordered Karaulov to report on the ruling and read its resolution part in the nearest Moment Istiny program. However, Karaulov did not do that.
2. Filip Nikandrov, chief architect of the Okhta center in St. Petersburg, has made an address on the program Sudite Sami (Channel One) accusing a Channel One program host of bias and the architecture community of ungrounded criticism of his project.
Nikandrov believes journalist Shevchenko “had carefully made the whole scenario in such a way as to ensure that all television viewers share his biased negative view on the project.” Nikandrov accused the journalist of using “all possible methods to turn the discussion into a fight and a farce.”
“I came to the studio two hours before the agreed time to bring professional computer models and images of the tower. However, the editorial office refused to take our materials, saying that all pictures used in the program had been downloaded from the project website. Of course, it was a lie. In the first bloc, I was able to make remarks during the first two minutes, and them I suddenly found that I had gone ‘numb’: the operator had turned off my microphone and what I was saying was not going into the recording,” Nikandrov said in his letter.
V. Lawsuits against Journalists
1. The Moscow Khamovnichesky Court last week partially granted the lawsuit filed by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov against the information agency RIA Novosti and The New York Times journalist Clifford Levy, ordering RIA Novosti and Levi to officially refute the information stated in the article entitled “Moscow’s Mayor Exports Russia’s New Nationalism” published on in the Internet sites in October 2008.
The article dealt with Luzhkov’s activities outside Moscow and Russia, using expressions such as “who yearns to restore Russia’s regional hegemony” and “stoked separatism in nations along the country’s borders.”
The plaintiff demanded alleged that the information stated in that publication was not true and was defamatory to his honor, dignity and business reputation as mayor of Moscow. The defendants, however, said that the concepts of honor, dignity and business reputation are applicable to citizens, but not officials, for example, the Moscow mayor, who is the plaintiff in the case. The lawsuit was printed on the Moscow mayor’s letterhead, the state duty was paid by the finance department of the Moscow mayor’s office, and Luzhkov’s interests are represented in court by an official from the city administration.
In addition, lawyer Ivan Pavlov alleged that the information contained in the article is not facts, but value judgments, which cannot be proved.
Justice Igor Kananovich said in his decision that the defendants were unable to provide to the court any proof of the information stated in the article. In addition, the judge believes that “a citizen fulfilling the functions of an official still has a right to defend himself as an individual.”
2. The Moscow Arbitration Court on November 13 granted a complaint filed by the company Sport Segodnya (which owns the portal Sports.ru) against the newspaper Sport Express, ordering the latter to pay the plaintiff 10,000 rubles.
The court also ordered the paper to correct the violations committed in the publication of materials on the site Sports.ru (these materials were authored by the paper’s journalists Igor Rabiner and Konstantin Alekseyev, who quoted materials authored by Sports.ru journalist Ivan Kalashnikov without stating the source and the author.
The defendant’s representatives alleged that the source of the materials was stated. Both texts quoted by the journalists were published in the blogs by arbiter Igor Yegorov and football coach Viktor Goncharenko at Sports.ru, and their names were stated in the articles published by Sport Express.
The court took the side of the plaintiff, who said that the materials were Kalashnikov’s interviews with Yegorov and Goncharenko and Kalashnikov was named as a co-author.
Dmitry Navosha, general director of Sport Segodnya and head of Sports.ru, called “to keep the motivation to continue using energy and money to look for and produce interesting content for our readers, making the sports section of the Russian Internet better.”
3. The paper Smena (St. Petersburg) on November 16 won the lawsuit filed by Yury Lyamin, a resident of St. Petersburg, seeking the protection of his right to receive accurate information.
The lawsuit was filed over an article entitled “City Day Turns into Crowd Day” published in the June 1, 2009 edition of the paper. The article deals with the celebration of the City Day in St. Petersburg and is illustrated with photos of empty bottles, beer cans, groups of drunken young men, and law enforcement officials. Lyamin found that the article provided a biased coverage of the work of seven committees of the city government (although the article did not contain any direct accusations against any of these agencies). The plaintiff also found that the article violated his right to receive accurate information and sought 1,000 rubles in compensation for that.
The lawsuit was tried in the Petrograd City Court on November 16. Officials from the city committees and the city police, who also were present at the trial, spoke in support of the plaintiff. However, the court found the claims against the paper to be ungrounded and rejected the compensation claim.
Commentary by CJES Legal Expert Viktoriya Blonskaya for Section III
Presidential Decree No. 1203 (issued on November 20, 1995) on the functioning of secure facilities establishes security measures that can be instituted at secure facilities.
The report on the attack against a group of Vesti reporters in the Moscow Preobrazhensky market contains a quote from the deputy director of the market, which imply that the Preobrazhensky market is a security facility: “As a state-run unitary enterprise, we have no right to have unsanctioned filming here. For that reason, welcome to our department, get permission there.”
The organizational-legal form of the economic entity (in this case, a state-run unitary enterprise) in itself cannot be grounds for obstacles to the professional activities of journalists.
The method of requesting information chosen by the Vesti journalists (oral inquiry) is envisaged by Article 39 of the Russian law On the Mass Media. Article 40 of the law (Refusal to Submit Information and Delayed Information) states that “refusal to submit requested information is possible if only the latter contains the data comprising a state, commercial or any other secret specially protected by the law.”
Under Article 144 of the Russia Criminal Code, impeding the lawful professional activities of journalists by coercing them to disseminate or not to disseminate information is punishable by a fine in an amount of up to 80,000 rubles or the convict’s wages or other income for a period of six months, up to 180 hours of community work, up to one year correction labor. The same crime involving abuse of office is punishable by a fine in an amount of 100,000 to 300,000 rubles or the convict’s wages or other income for a period of one to two years, up to two years of community work, or up to two years in prison.
Type Of Event
Number Of Cases
Attacks On Journalists
1 – Samara region
1 – Moscow
Fatalities Among Journalists
1 – Kaliningrad region
Detentions And Arrests Of Journalists
Lawsuits Against Journalists
1 – Saratov region
2 – Moscow
2 – St. Petersburg
Other Kinds Of Pressure On Editorial Boards And Journalists
