(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) – 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 published a critical article in May about Vladimir Grishin, deputy speaker of the Ivanovo regional Duma (assembly), the management of the joint-stock company Rospechat refused to accept the newspaper for sale. Rospechat’s director is Grishin’s wife, Larissa Grishina, said Smetanin.
The editorial staff filed a complaint with the regional administration. After intervention by Mr. Pahomov, vice president of the Ivanovo regional government, Rospechat agreed to accept the newspaper, but it has still not appeared for sale. Indignant readers report that no copies of the paper are available from news vendors.
“When we tried to contact the Ivanovo regional branches of Rospechat directly in order to distribute the newspaper in the region through them, we were refused. We were informed about the order prohibiting Rospechat from taking on ‘Ivanovo Press’ for sale, signed by Larissa Grishina”, Smetanin said.
The editor-in-chief said a similar refusal came from the state organisation, Pochta Rossii (Russian Mail), which said its refusal was due to the newspaper’s low circulation.
“We have been compelled to drastically reduce circulation from 12,000 to 4,000. I am afraid, that may not be the end. The newspaper is now distributed only by private businessmen, but the quantity is insignificant”, said Smetanin.
Smetanin spoke of several other incidents involving the newspaper in recent years. Since 2003, officials at various levels have appealed to judicial bodies with claims against the newspaper. In particular, in July 2003, in the city of Kineshma (in the Ivanovo region), employees of the newspaper and Smetanin were gathering information about the city’s mayor, Andrei Nazarov. But they were detained by police and escorted to the office of the mayor, who was interested in the reasons why the journalists had come to the city. The mayor released the journalists after recommending that next time they ask for information from his press service. He also told them that they were lucky being detained by the police instead of his security guards. After the newspaper published an article describing the journalists’ detention in detail, Mayor Nazarov took the issue to court accusing the newspaper of defamation. He won.
On 31 March 2005, the Lenin regional court in the city of Ivanovo reached a decision on a claim by Vladimir Tikhonov, governor of Ivanovo region, and his deputy, Vera Dobrolubova, against “Ivanovo Press” and Smetanin. The court ruled that a statement by the journalist, published in an 11 January 2005 article was “invalid” and discredited the plaintiffs. The court ruled that the plaintiffs were entitled to 43,000 rubles (approx. US$1,600) in damages.
On 1 July 2005, members of the Ivanovo region’s rapid action squad conducted a search of the premises of “Ivanovo Press”. They confiscated documents which still have not been returned. “We were not shown an official search warrant from a court, probably because one was never issued. We are sure that the law enforcement agencies’ actions are related to a series of articles about the work of the regional public prosecutor’s office. I consider it revenge by officials from the public prosecutor’s office,” Smetanin said.
At the beginning of 2006, the printing house Rabochii krai refused to print the newspaper and later a regional printing house also refused to do so. The newspaper had to be printed in another region, in the city of Kostroma, 100 km from Ivanovo.
The head of the Ivanovo mayor’s press service, Vitaly Iljushkin, also refuses to invite “Ivanovo Press” staff to city events.
“All these facts testify to the desire to close our newspaper in any way possible,” said Smetanin. He added that on 7 July, the first hearing of a case pitting “Ivanovo Press” against Russia will take place at the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg, where cases on the infringement of the rights and freedoms of journalists are considered.
