(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Russian Minister of Information Mikhail Lesin, RSF complained of the pressure brought to bear against the daily “Segodnia” and the weekly “Itogui” by the state company Gazprom, the Media Most group’s main creditor. “The two publications, which are the most influential and critical towards the government, have been ordered […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Russian Minister of Information Mikhail Lesin, RSF complained of the pressure brought to bear against the daily “Segodnia” and the weekly “Itogui” by the state company Gazprom, the Media Most group’s main creditor. “The two publications, which are the most influential and critical towards the government, have been ordered to either leave the group or change their editorial stance. How can there be any further doubt as to the political nature of this affair, which has otherwise been described as a legal-financial deal?” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We ask the Russian state to abandon its efforts to take control of the Media Most group, and to guarantee the pluralism of information in Russia,” added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, the senior managers of Sem Dnei, the publishing house of Media Most, the press group which is to be taken over by the state company Gazprom as a reimbursement of its debt, have allegedly decided to cease publication of “Segodnia” as of 1 May 2001. “Segodnia” is an influential political daily which has a circulation of 55,000 copies in Russia’s main cities. The newspaper has been especially critical of the Russian government under Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. Similarly, the news magazine “Itogui” may be forced to leave the group in order to maintain its editorial independence. The Gazprom company, the Media Most group’s main creditor, will soon take control of the press group and already owns forty-six percent of the NTV television station’s shares. NTV is the only private television station which broadcasts throughout the Russian Federation. Gazprom also has a majority of voting rights within Media Most, following the Russian justice system’s impounding of nineteen percent of the group’s shares in January.
Media Most’s owner, Vladimir Gusinsky, remains detained in Spain, awaiting a decision by the fourth section of the Madrid tribunal’s penal chamber concerning the Russian public prosecutor’s office’s request for his extradition. The decision should be pronounced within the week. The appeals process and the examination of the case by the council of ministers will likely delay the final decision for over a month. RSF recalls that Gusinsky has been the victim of extortion personally involving the Russian minister of information and the Gazprom group. Incarcerated in June 2000 for “fraudulent privatisation”, Gusinsky was released, and the charges pending against him were dropped, following his signature of a secret agreement with Gazprom, signed by Lesin, the minister of information, guaranteeing the end of legal proceedings in exchange for the press group’s transfer to the state company. Further to his denunciation of the agreement, Gusinsky was charged with “large-scale fraud”.
On 14 December, RSF sent a letter to the Spanish minister of justice concerning the eventual extradition to Russia of Gusinsky, owner of the Media Most group, in which the organisation asked him to “carefully consider the implications of a decision which could have serious consequences for pluralism of information in Russia.”