(RSF/IFEX) – RSF protests the extensive official pressure and obstruction aimed at the editorial staff of the independent weekly “Adige Heku”, its distribution network and its editor-in-chief and founder, Valery Hataschukov. “A free and independent media is a basic condition for democracy. Why should Kabardino-Balkaria be an exception? The newspaper ‘Adige Heku’ has the right […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF protests the extensive official pressure and obstruction aimed at the editorial staff of the independent weekly “Adige Heku”, its distribution network and its editor-in-chief and founder, Valery Hataschukov.
“A free and independent media is a basic condition for democracy. Why should Kabardino-Balkaria be an exception? The newspaper ‘Adige Heku’ has the right to be established in Nalchik,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Russian Information Minister Mikhail Lessin. “We call on you to see that censorship and official pressure on the newspaper stops and that the right to inform the public is respected in Kabardino-Balkaria,” he added in his letter.
Since “Adige Heku” was launched in early 2001 in the small Caucasian republic of 800,000 people, it has battled constant official efforts to block its printing and distribution. Since it is excluded from the government-controlled distribution network, it is sold by independent street vendors but copies of it are continually seized.
In January 2002, outgoing Kabardino-Balkaria President Valery Kokov stood for reelection despite a two-term limit stipulated in the Russian Federation’s constitution. Hataschukov was detained several times after the newspaper ran articles about the views of opposition candidates and denounced Kokov’s candidacy as illegal. Police repeatedly asked him who was funding the paper. The newspaper has not been able to publish since the beginning of the year, due to the systematic threats against its journalists and the owners of the offices it rents.
In addition, journalist Nur Dolay, who works for the weekly “Courrier International”, was recently attacked while doing a story in the capital, Nalchik, about a government opponent and friend of Hataschukov. Two armed men broke into Hataschukov’s apartment, where Dolay was staying during the night of 29-30 May, gagged and bound her and then searched her possessions in vain for cassettes of reporting she had done. She was only released the next morning by someone who arrived for an appointment with her.
