Independent radio station forcibly shut down; news director arrested

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 27 May 1998, police raided the offices of Radio Titan, the only independent radio station in the Republic of Bashkortostan, beating and rounding up staff members and supporters. Employees and listeners had been keeping a round-the-clock vigil around the station?s building, in anticipation of official reprisals after Radio Titan aired interviews with […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 27 May 1998, police raided the offices of Radio Titan, the
only independent radio station in the Republic of Bashkortostan, beating and
rounding up staff members and supporters. Employees and listeners had been
keeping a round-the-clock vigil around the station?s building, in
anticipation of official reprisals after Radio Titan aired interviews with
three opposition candidates who were barred from the 14 June presidential
elections. Police seized the radio’s equipment and detained the whole staff,
including manager and news director Altaf Galeyev and Lilia Ismagilova, its
executive director. Although Ismagilova and the others were released the
next day, Galeyev was held for firing several shots in the air with a
handgun when police stormed the radio’s offices. On 4 June, Galeyev was
charged with “hooliganism” and “illegal use of firearms” under article
213(3) of the Bashkir penal code. If found guilty, he faces a possible
prison sentence of four to seven years. Galeyev, who is in poor health, was
allowed to see a lawyer, but no court hearing has yet been scheduled.

Attacks on Radio Titan by the strong-arm regime of Bashkir President Murtaza
Rakhimov, who exercises full control over media, have been common since
1994, when Radio Titan began re-broadcasting Radio Liberty and Voice of
America programs. On 25 May, Radio Titan quoted from several articles in
Moscow newspapers revealing the allegedly corrupt practices of President
Rakhimov?s regime, his total control over the local oil industry and his
tight grip on the media. Staff members maintain that, as a result of the
broadcast, local authorities made several attempts to silence the station by
shutting off the electricity, water supply and phone lines. After Galeyev
called on listeners to defend his station, the government-controlled Russian
Radio Ufa aired interviews with Rakhimov’s press secretary and a
psychiatrist, who questioned the “psychological health” of Radio Titan?s
reporters.

Recommended Action

His Excellency Boris Yeltsin

President

Moscow, Russia

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His Excellency Yuri Skuratov

Prosecutor General of Russia

Moscow, Russia

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