Attacks on the Press 2005: Russia
RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin and his allies continued to expand control over the media, using methods that critics called reminiscent of the Soviet era. Journalists who took on powerful political or business interests sometimes paid with their lives. Two journalists were killed in 2005 for their reporting. In the five years since Putin took power,…
RUSSIA
NOVEMBER 29, 2005 Posted: December 1, 2005 Olga Romanova, Ren-TV HARASSED Romanova said at a press conference in Moscow that she was concerned for her safety and that of her two children. She said that she had been followed by a black Audi since filing a criminal complaint with the Khamovnicheskii inter-district prosecutor on November…
TV anchor taken off air for critical news reporting
New York, November 28, 2005—Moscow-based Ren-TV has taken news anchor Olga Romanova off the air after she criticized the privately owned station for censoring her news coverage. Romanova said three security guards prevented her from entering the TV station on November 24 to host her evening news program “24,” according to local and international news…
BELARUS
AUGUST 16, 2005 Posted October 31, 2005 Pavel Morozov, Andrei Obozov, Oleg Minich HARASSED, CENSORED On August 16, the city prosecutor’s office in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, launched a criminal case against a Web site that published a series of animated Internet cartoons satirizing Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The case was opened under Article 367…
CPJ calls on minister to reverse ABC decision
Dear Minister Lavrov: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Foreign Ministry’s pattern of using accreditation, visa and other regulations to control and intimidate journalists reporting on the war in Chechnya for foreign media. The Foreign Ministry escalated this campaign against foreign news media by moving this week to bar the U.S. television network ABC from reporting in Russia.
RUSSIA
AUGUST 2, 2005 Posted: August 9, 2005 ABC Andrei Babitsky, ABC HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION The Foreign Ministry announced steps to bar the U.S. television network ABC from reporting in Russia. The ministry said in a statement that ABC reporters had been denied access to government officials and that their accreditations will not be renewed when…
Kremlin moves to bar ABC from reporting in Russia
New York, August 2, 2005—The Kremlin escalated its campaign of intimidation against foreign news media covering the war in Chechnya as authorities began moving today to bar the U.S. television network ABC from reporting in Russia. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the decision and called for its reversal.
National media outlets agree to curb reporting on terrorism
New York, April 11, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the “Anti-Terrorist Convention,” which was signed on Tuesday, April 8, by directors of several leading national broadcast media outlets, who agreed to accept voluntary restrictions on their coverage of terrorism and anti-terrorist government operations. The media executives who signed the agreement (click…
Attacks on the Press 2000: Russia
THE ASCENDANCY OF PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN brought an alarming assault on press freedom in Russia last year. Under the new president, the Kremlin imposed censorship in Chechnya, orchestrated legal cases against powerful media barons, and granted sweeping powers of surveillance to the security services (see special report).