Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

(CJES/IFEX) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (MID) has denied an entry visa to the Caucasus Editor and Project Coordinator for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in London, Mr. Thomas de Vaal. The journalist sought entry in response to an invitation from the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) to participate […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 20 June 2006, Valeriy Smetanin, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Ivanovo Press” based in the city of Ivanovo, appealed to CJES with a request for support. Smetanin told CJES that the newspaper, which has been published since 1997, may soon be closed because of arbitrary measures by local authorities. After the newspaper […]

(CJES/IFEX) – The following is a 20 June 2006 CJES press release: Journalists’ organizations call for criminal liability for libel to be abolished MOSCOW, June 20 (Interfax) – The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES) and the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) have called for a number of Criminal Code articles that carry punishment […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 19 June 2006, the Volzhsky area court in Saratov City considered a legal action requested by the Saratov branch of the governing party Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia) to be taken against founder and editor Sergey Mihajlov of the independent newspaper “Saratovskiy reporter” (“Saratov Reporter”). Mihajlov told CJES that the action was initiated […]

(CJES/IFEX) – Early in the morning of 11 May 2006, the 64-year-old father of REGNUM news agency correspondent Murat Gukemuhov was attacked in Cherkessk, a city in the Karachaevo-Cherkessia republic. The journalist told CJES that the day before an unknown man called the journalist’s home. “My father picked up the phone. The caller offered to […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 3 May 2006, a police patrol stopped a taxi that was transporting Fatima Tlisova, REGNUM news agency’s chief editor for the North Caucasus. The incident occurred on the Cherkessk-Mineralniye Vodi highway, at a checkpoint near Suvorovskaya stanitsa. The journalist was travelling from Cherkessk to Nalchik for business-related purposes. She told CJES that […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 27 April 2006, staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of Karachaevo-Cherkessia conducted a search in the house of the parents of Fatima Tlisova, a correspondent of REGNUM news agency. Tlisova is officially registered as a resident of that house. At the time of the search the journalist was on a […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 21 April 2006, a court in the Obtyabrskiy district of Belgorod began hearing a lawsuit filed against “Moscovskiy Komsomolets v Belgorode” newspaper by Belgorod region Governor Evgeniy Savchenko for the protection of his honour, dignity and business reputation. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief Aleksandr Kalutskiy told CJES that the governor’s lawsuit is over an […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On the morning of 18 April 2006, a news crew of the regional television company TV-21, comprised of journalist Dmitriy Sergeev and cameraman Valeriy Gavel, was detained in the city of Kola. The journalists were preparing a television story on the Russian president’s plenipotentiary envoy Ilya Klebanov and his visit to Murmansk. Svetlana […]

(CJES/IFEX) – Police staff seized a television camera from Roman Korolenko, a journalist of Russia TV channel, as well as a still photography camera from Sergey Miheev, a correspondent of “Kommersant-Daily” newspaper. The incident happened on 20 April 2006 in the Krasnogorsk district of the Moscow region, where the journalists had arrived to film a […]

(CJES/IFEX) – The Agency of National News (ANN) announced on 19 April 2006 that its correspondent Alla Tuchkova’s accreditation card to the Moscow City Duma (the city legislature, MCD) was siezed on 18 April by employees of the press service of the MCD. According to ANN, from the comments posted on its website, Alla Tuchkova […]

(CJES/IFEX) – The first trial sitting on the case of the beating of First Channel television journalist Olga Kiriy was postponed in Vladikavkaz, capital of the republic of North Ossetia, on 5 April 2006. The defendant, Senior Lieutenant Georgiy Totoev, a Ministry of Internal Affairs employee, assaulted Kiriy on 3 February at the central clinic […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On 20 March 2006 at about 9:00 p.m. (local time), Marina Litvinovich, the chief editor of Internet site Pravda Beslana and coordinator of the opposition movement “Joint Civil Front”, was beaten. The attack took place near the Joint Civil Front office at Makarenko street. Litvinovich told the Eho Moskvi radio station that unidentified […]

(CJES/IFEX) – The following is a press release by Globe International, which is being circulated by CJES under a partnership agreement: MONGOLIA: TV journalist target of recent attacks On the night of 19 December 2005, unknown individuals vandalised the vehicle of television journalist G. Batjav near his home in Ulaanbaatar. All of the windows were […]

(CJES/IFEX) – On the morning of 28 June 2005, Nikolay Kochurov, editor-in-chief of the “Severniy rabochiy” newspaper, was severely beaten in the entrance of his apartment block in Severodvinsk, Archangelsk region. Kochurov is conscious but remains in grave condition at Emergency Therapy Hospital No. 2’s neurosurgery ward. He sustained multiple fractures and a serious brain […]

(CJES/IFEX) – Magomedzarid Varisov, a well-known political analyst and journalist, was murdered on the evening of 28 June 2005. Varisov was the director of the Republican Center of Strategic Initiatives and Political Technologies. The incident occurred at 9:15 p.m. (local time) on Mayakovskiy street in Makhachkala, Dagestan, as Varisov and his wife were returning home. […]