27 Jun 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Russian journalist, Oleg Kashin, has won the right to speculate about the identity of two men who beat him with iron rods. Kashin spent five days in a coma after he was attacked outside his apartmenton 6 November last year. The Kremlin’s youth policy chief, Vasily Yakemanko, filed a libel suit against Kashin, liberal newspaper Novye Izvestia and political analyst, Alexander Morozov, for reporting speculation that he might be behind the incident. A Moscow court ruled in favour of Kashin after it was found that Yakemenko had failed to prove that the accusations were factual statements.
03 Jun 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The United Nations special rapporteur for free expression Frank La Rue has called for the abolition of criminal defamation laws. Guatemalan lawyer La Rue also condemned the use of “national security” reasons to curb free expression:
In a report released today, LaRue comments:
The Special Rapporteur reiterates the call to all States to decriminalize defamation. Additionally, he underscores that protection of national security or countering terrorism cannot be used to justify restricting the right to expression unless it can be demonstrated that: (a) the expression is intended to incite imminent violence; (b) it is likely to incite such violence; and (c) there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence.
Criminal defamation cases are frequently brought to silence criticism of authorities. Recent examples include actions brought against journalist Art Troitsky in Russia and anti death penalty campaigner Alan Shadrake in Singapore.
01 Jun 11 | Index Index, minipost
Russian reporter Rodion Marinichev was yesterday arrested, stripped of his press accreditation and given 24 hours to leave the Belarus. He has been banned from returning to the country for five years. The correspondent, from Russian television station Dozhd, was detained by police just hours after he interviewed Irina Khalip who is serving a two year suspended prison sentence. She is the a correspondent for Novaya Gazeta and the wife of Andrei Sannikov, a former presidential candidate who was recently given a five year prison sentence for “organising and preparing a public order disruption.”
01 Jun 11 | Index Index, minipost
Russian authorities arrested Rustam Makhmudov in Chechyna on Tuesday (31 May). He is suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya to death in 2006. Politkovskaya was one of the fiercest critics of now Chechyan President Ramzan Kadyrov, having accused him of torture and corruption. Makmudov’s arrest follows the acquittal of his two brothers and a former police investigator who were tried as accompli to the Politkovskaya murder in 2009. It is now claimed that Makmudov could be the missing link in the murder conspiracy.
