Attacks on the Press 2007: Russia
RUSSIA Constitutional constraints posed little problem for a term-limited President Vladimir Putin, who appeared certain to hold power long after his tenure was due to end in 2008. The popular, two-term president hopped into the parliamentary race in the fall, topping the dominant United Russia ticket that took 64 percent of the vote in a…
Ingushetia police detain, beat, deport Russian journalists
New York, January 29, 2008–Police in the southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia detained, beat, and deported journalists and human rights activists who tried to cover an opposition rally in the regional capital on Saturday, according to CPJ sources and local news reports. Authorities mounted a massive crackdown against the roughly 200 protesters in Nazran. Riot…
Deported journalist declared threat to state security
New York, January 17, 2008—Russian authorities say they were ensuring the “security of the state” when they barred a reporter from re-entering the country last month. Natalya Morar, a Moldovan citizen who works for the Moscow-based independent newsweekly The New Times, said the Russian Embassy in Moldova informed her today of the official reason for…
FSB bars journalist from re-entering Russia
New York, December 18, 2007—Authorities at the Moscow Domodedovo airport barred Natalya Morar, a Moldovan citizen and an investigative reporter for the Moscow-based independent newsweekly The New Times, from re-entering Russia when she returned from her business trip to Israel on Sunday. Referring to a secret Federal Security Service (FSB) order, passport control officers said…
Critical journalist jailed in St. Petersburg
New York, November 28, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at the imprisonment of Nikolai Andrushchenko, co-founder and an editor of the weekly newspaper Novy Peterburg in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. On Saturday, a court sentenced Andrushchenko to two months of pre-trial detention on charges of defamation and obstruction of justice.…
Television crew attacked in Ingushetia
New York, November 26, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia to immediately launch an investigation to find all those responsible for a vicious attack on three television journalists and a prominent human rights advocate in the early hours on Saturday. Artyom Vysotsky, Stanislav Goryachikh, and Karen…