26 Mar 12 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Former Novaya Gazeta columnist Victoria Ivleva was deported from Uzbekistan in an incident she believes is linked to her work. Ivleva flew to Tashkent for a photo workshop last Friday, but was not allowed to leave the airport. She was then refused a meeting with the Russian consul and put on a flight back to Russia. Ivleva has said she believes the deportation was linked to an article she wrote almost five years ago about Uzbekistan called The Country of Fish. She has also expressed support for photographer Umida Akhmedova, who was persecuted by the authorities for a photo collection that highlighted gender inequality in Uzbekistan.
05 Dec 11 | Uncategorized
Media freedom is not one of those areas where too many cooks spoil the broth. The debate about freedom of expression – of which the role of the press is an important sub-section — has gone mainstream over the past couple of years. Around the world, free expression has crashed against issues of privacy, confidentiality, sensibility, and a panoply of other concerns. The black and white cases of egregious censorship, involving violence, intimidation and abuse of law, remain as pressing as ever.
Now thanks to social media, and the availability of instant information, free expression has become more complicated and varied. In the UK, the ongoing phone hacking scandal has focused attention on poor journalistic standards.
Therefore the arrival of a new organisation devoted to assisting and promoting “good” journalism is welcomed. The Journalism Foundation, led by former Independent Editor Simon Kelner and funded by the Lebedevs — owners of that newspaper and others including Russia’s Novaya Gazeta — intends to sponsor and assist media, starting in Tunisia and the English Midlands. It is an eclectic first stab, but only the beginning. Its most valuable contribution will be “hands on” support for those wishing to hold the rich and powerful to account. The boundaries between “established” and “citizen” journalism are breaking down, and initiatives such as this help to hasten that process.
Through our reporting and our advocacy, Index on Censorship leads the way in promoting free expression and combating censorship in all its manifestations. We welcome a new partner in this brave and not-so-new world.
01 Dec 11 | Europe and Central Asia, Russia
Earlier this month, Russia’s Department of Presidential Affairs won three defamation lawsuits against newspaper Novaya Gazeta in just one week.
“The court is being used as a censorship instrument; it has been serving officials rather than law lately”, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov told Index on Censorship.
The Department of Presidential Affairs of the Russian Federation is a state executive authority responsible for logistical support and social amenities for Russian federal authorities.
“Novaya Gazeta” is a twice-weekly newspaper owned by media tycoon Alexander Lebedev and the former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. It is famous for its investigations and criticism of authorities.
In the week of 14–20 November Moscow’s Basmanny Court passed judgements on three libel claims brought by Department of Presidential Affairs against Novaya Gazeta. They all concerned publications about federal budget spending for controversial purposes.
One of the articles concerned firms close to the Department of Presidential Affairs which took part in drawing budget funds while reconstructing Russia’s main memorial to soldiers of World War II — the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall. The article contained a supposition that 91 million roubles were withdrawn from Russian federal budget for reconstruction works which might have had already been done.
The Department of Presidential Affairs filed a suit against Novaya Gazeta and the article’s author Roman Anin, claiming the information about alleged misapplication of funds was defamatory. The other two defamation suits the Department won against “Novaya Gazeta” were brought in response to articles about its controversial transactions with short-lived companies, and high staff salaries which exceeded the ones publically declared.
The newspaper will also have to pay the Department and personally it’s head Vladimir Kozhin 100 thousand roubles (2049,77 GBP) in damages for the article about extremely high salaries. This article’s author Zinaida Burskaya has to pay 10 thousand roubles (204,98 GBP). The statements in them will also have to be refuted in “Novaya Gazeta”.
The Department’s spokesperson Viktor Khrekov said he was satisfied with the court’s decisions.
The newspaper’s attorney Yaroslav Kozheurov, in his order, said he will appeal the court’s decision. He expressed confidence that in spite of the judge’s decision the facts mentioned in the articles were sufficiently proven in the court.
“But even such controversial proceedings are better than shooting journalists,” says Muratov. Two“Novaya Gazeta” journalists were assassinated in last five years: Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasia Baburova. “Defamation suits will remain a key factor in suppressing free speech as long as Vladimir Putin rules the country,” Muratov concluded.
07 Oct 10 | Uncategorized
Most Russian newspapers, liberal and conservative, covered the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder today. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a liberal independent newspaper, Rossiskaya Gazeta, the government’s mouthpiece, and the liberal Moscow News, along with other left and right-wing papers, gave the story the same amount of coverage and reflected similar viewpoints.
Only Kommersant, a liberal newspaper, and Politkovskaya’s own Novaya Gazeta stood out from the rest. Kommersant gave more column inches to the anniversary and published the sceptical comment of the senior editor of Novaya Gazeta, Sergei Sokolov: “I do not think that the investigators have found out anything new, and even if they did, it is in their interests to keep quiet.”
Sokolov’s cynicism contrasts with the reporting in the rest of the press. The investigation into Politkovskaya’s murder has now been extended to next February. While police agents in the rest of the media are reported to have made progress and found new evidence, Sokolov is one of the few critical voices. “The ones who we think have something to do with the case have been investigated already, years ago, before the release of the murder suspects.”
