Russia

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Vladimir Ruchailo, RSF expressed its concern further to the disappearance of journalist Vladimir Yatsin in North Ossetia, and asked that – under the minister’s direct authority – all necessary measures be taken to secure his release. “Vladimir Yatsin is the second journalist to disappear in the region […]

(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 […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly troubled by the 20 July 1999 conviction of Russian military journalist Grigory Pasko for providing allegedly classified information to Japanese media about the Pacific Fleet’s hazardous handling of nuclear waste. **Updates IFEX alerts of 20 July, 15 July, 9 June, 4 June, 11 March and 17 February 1999, 14 October, […]

(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 15 July, 9 June, 4 June, 11 March and 17 February 1999, 14 October, 21 May and 11 May 1998** Paris, 20 July 1999 For immediate release WAN Welcomes Amnesty for Russian Journalist But Condemns Conviction The World Association of Newspapers has […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the Russian justice minister, Pavel Krasheninnikov, RSF has protested the continued detention of naval journalist Grigory Pasko, whose trial for “high treason” is due to end Thursday 15 July 1999 in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Recalling that the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly troubled by the continuing criminal prosecution and imprisonment of military journalist Grigory Pasko, whose closed military trial in Vladivostok on charges of high treason and revealing state secrets is scheduled to resume on 10 June 1999. A guilty verdict in the trial could result in his imprisonment for up to […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 11 March and 17 February 1999, 14 October, 21 May and 11 May 1998** Russia Reporters sans frontières asks for Grigory Pasko’s acquittal On 6 June 1999, a military court in Vladivostok (in Russia’s far east region) will likely issue its verdict […]

(GDF/IFEX) – On 30 April 1999, Altaf Galeev, the director of independent radio station Titan in Ufa, Bashkortostan, was released on his own recognizance not to leave. **Updates IFEX alerts of 18 August and 10 July 1998** Galeev was released for the duration of his prejudicial proceedings, because of a modification of his penalty. Galeev’s […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is concerned by the disappearance of journalist Said Issaiev in Grozny, Chechnya. According to RSF’s information, on 28 March 1999, Issaiev, a correspondent with the Itar Tass press agency in Chechnya, was kidnapped by several armed men at his Grozny residence. According to information received by RSF on 19 April, a US$500,000 […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is protesting the sentencing of journalist Ruben Arutiunian to imprisonment, in Moscow. On 15 April 1999, during a ten minute audience, and with no other witnesses present than three police officers who assaulted him the previous day, Arutiunian, a reporter with the human rights weekly “Express Chronicle”, was sentenced by the Tverskoy […]

(IPI/IFEX) – President Boris Yeltsin vetoed legislation on 31 March 1999 that would have established a council of lawmakers to oversee ”the protection of morals in Russian TV and radio broadcasts.” The President said the legislation would be a form of censorship explicitly outlawed by Russian law. **Updates IFEX alert of 23 March 1999** The […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly alarmed by the kidnapping of Said Akhmedovich Isayev, the sole correspondent in Grozny, Chechnya, for the Russian Itar-Tass news agency. **Updates IFEX alert of 30 March 1999** Late in the evening of 28 March 1999, a few unidentified, armed men broke into Isayev’s house in Grozny, and abducted him. On […]

(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is strongly condemning the kidnapping of a correspondent working for Itar-Tass news agency. According to IPI’s sources, unidentified armed men broke into the house of Said Isayev, a Chechen who has worked for the Russian news agency for five years, and seized the journalist on late Sunday, 28 March 1999. **For background […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is strongly protesting the arrest and subsequent detention of Tatyana Chaladze, a journalist currently based in Kaliningrad, Russia. The current charges against her stem from a previous criminal libel charge filed in 1992 by Alfreds Rubiks, a former Latvian Communist Party official. During 1991 and 1992, Chaladze was the general editor of […]

(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is very concerned about the serious threat to freedom of expression and opinion in Russia posed by the passing of a bill which would tighten state control over the country’s broadcast media by creating a television and radio watchdog. On 17 March 1999, the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly, the Federation […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and Greenpeace, a non-government organisation for the protection of the environment, wish to draw the case of Russian journalist Grigory Pasko to the attention of the Council of Europe. **Updates IFEX alerts of 17 February 1999, 14 October, 21 May and 11 May 1998** A correspondent for the Russian Pacific Fleet’s newspaper, […]