(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has written to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voicing concern at the possibility that Japanese freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka could be banned from Russia for five years after reportedly conducting interviews in Ingushetia without being registered or accredited and while travelling on a business visa. The organisation asked Lavrov to clarify why […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has written to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voicing concern at the possibility that Japanese freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka could be banned from Russia for five years after reportedly conducting interviews in Ingushetia without being registered or accredited and while travelling on a business visa.
The organisation asked Lavrov to clarify why Tsuneoka, a specialist in the Caucasus, was arrested on 19 November 2004 by security guards at the train station in the Ingush capital of Nazran, and charged with “violating administrative orders”.
Ingush security sources told a correspondent with the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that Tsuneoka would very probably be sentenced to a fine and a five-year ban from Russian territory.
“The extension of ‘anti-terrorist action zones’ to more and more places in Russia, especially after the Beslan tragedy, has made it virtually impossible for foreign journalists who want to go to Ingushetia to obtain accreditation,” RSF said.
“It would be disproportionate to ban a journalist from Russia for five years because he met refugees and survivors of the Beslan hostage tragedy,” the organisation added.
The charges against Tsuneoka were considered by a regional court in Nazran during a preliminary hearing on 30 November. Tsuneoka arrived in Russia on 24 October and began investigating an organisation of mothers of soldiers in Moscow. He then went to Vladikavkaz to meet with victims of the Beslan tragedy.
Tsuneoka has often worked in the Caucasus, reporting from both Russia and Georgia. In August 2001, he disappeared in the Pankissi Gorge (the border zone between Russia and Georgia). According to official accounts, the journalist was released following the intervention of Georgian intelligence services (see IFEX alerts of 27 and 20 September 2001).
