Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by recent cases in which Vladivostok authorities have harassed media outlets and journalists for political reasons. Specifically, we wish to draw your attention to the confiscation of the newspaper Dalyokaya Okrayina by local police, and to an NTV news broadcast that showed Vladivostok mayor Yury Kopylov insulting NTV journalists and ordering his bodyguard to assault them.
Vladivostok, June 4, 2001 — The postponement Monday of a new trial against Russian environmental journalist Grigory Pasko was denounced by his defense team and CPJ representatives in front of the Vladivostok courthouse and at a later press conference. Defense lawyer Anatoly Pishkin said the delay was an attempt by Pacific Ocean Fleet prosecutors “to…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, protests the violent persecution of provincial journalist Olga Kitova by officials in the southern city of Belgorod.
New York, June 1, 2001 — CPJ representatives who traveled to Russia to show support for embattled investigative reporter Grigory Pasko are in Vladivostok to meet with the journalist and his defense team over the weekend in preparation for his upcoming trial. Pasko faces charges of treason and revealing state secrets for leaking information to…
New York, May 29, 2001 — Two representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) arrived in Moscow today on their way to Vladivostok to support Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, who is facing a second trial on charges of treason and revealing state secrets. CPJ board member Peter Arnett and Europe program consultant Emma Gray…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, is deeply concerned about the takeover by Gazprom-Media of news outlets previously owned by the Media-Most company. Gazprom-Media is a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-run gas monopoly.
New York, April 17, 2001 — After a tense 11-day standoff, the state-dominated Gazprom corporation succeeded in occupying the headquarters of NTV, formerly Russia’s only independent national television station, according to international press reports and local sources. At 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, Boris Jordan, a controversial American financier appointed by Gazprom to head…
The first year of Vladimir Putin’s presidency has been a trying time for Russian civil society generally and for the media in particular. The new president has steadfastly worked toward Soviet-style centralized control over the vast country, battling Yeltsin-era oligarchs, wayward regional leaders, and non-governmental organizations. All this activity has been undertaken under the Orwellian…