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Censored
February 12
NTV, HARASSED, CENSORED
Executives of NTV, Russia's only independent television news network, received a call from the presidential press service saying that NTV correspondents henceforth would not be allowed to cover events at the Kremlin. The call came after NTV's Feb. 11 broadcast of the second of two interviews with President Boris Yelstin's former press secretary Vyacheslav Kostikov, in which Kostikov spoke very critically of Yeltsin. CPJ urged President Yeltsin to lift the ban immediately. After much publicity, Yeltsin's press secretary Sergei Medvedov denied banning the station from covering events and allowed NTV correspondents access to Kremlin events the following day.
March 8
Journalists in Chechnya, CENSORED
During a raid by Chechen rebels in the center of Grozny, Russian officials prevented journalists from entering the city. Television crews already inside Grozny were forbidden to film or move around the city. A well-marked van of a television crew from Russia's Independent Television Network (NTV) was fired upon and damaged by snipers. No passengers were killed. The raid began on March 6 and ended in a cease-fire on the afternoon of March 9. Once the cease-fire was declared, journalists were allowed access to the site where the fighting had taken place.
June 24
All media in Tatarstan, CENSORED
The president of the republic of Tatarstan, Shaimiev Mentimer, issued a decree forbidding anyone from making slanderous remarks about the Tatarstani president or publicly insulting him. The decree imposes a fine of four million rubles (US$800)--equal to 20 times the minimum monthly wage--on those convicted of insulting or slandering the president. The decree states that any news organization that reports an insult against the Tatarstani president will be fined 30 million rubles (US$6,000) and that all copies of the offending issue or broadcast will be confiscated. Repeat offenders or those whose insults are printed or broadcast in the news media would face a fine of seven million rubles (US$1,400). On June 27, CPJ sent a letter to President Mentimer condemning the decree as a form of seditious libel and urging him to repeal the decree immediately.
For more information contact europeweb@cpj.org