(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Vladimir Rouchaïlo, RSF is demanding “the immediate opening of an investigation to determine the causes and identify the authors of the grenade attack on the home of journalist Igor Michine,” in Ekaterinburg (Ural region). On 3 August 1999, unknown individuals threw a grenade inside Michine’s […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Vladimir Rouchaïlo, RSF
is demanding “the immediate opening of an investigation to determine the
causes and identify the authors of the grenade attack on the home of
journalist Igor Michine,” in Ekaterinburg (Ural region).
On 3 August 1999, unknown individuals threw a grenade inside Michine’s
apartment. The journalist is in charge of the local television station,
Kanal 4. He was not in his residence at the time of the attack. His
apartment was almost completely destroyed. Robert Ménard, RSF’s
secretary-general, asked to be kept informed of developments with the
inquiry, and said he was “concerned by the climate of pressure and threats
against certain media in which this incident took place.”
The Kanal 4 television station is owned by the Most financial group, whose
executives complained in late July of the searches for financial information
carried out in the offices of media which they own, and which they qualify
as “efforts to muzzle the press prior to the elections.” The Most group
supports Moscow mayor Youri Loujkov, one of the candidates in the race to
succeed Boris Yeltsin. Loujkov is currently involved in a conflict with the
Kremlin. On 2 August, fourteen editors-in-chief sent a letter to the
presidential administration denouncing the pressures which media are
increasingly subject to in this “pre-election campaign” period.
