Russia

(RSF/IFEX) – According to information released by RSF on 11 May 1998, the military prosecutor for the Far East region of the Russian Federation has renewed the imprisonment of Grigory Pasko. Pasko, who worked for the Russian Navy newspaper “Boevaya Vakhta” and for the Japanese media (the daily newspaper “Asaki” and the NHK television station) […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to information released by RSF on 11 May 1998, Stanislav Kholopov, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Stolitza-C”, was stabbed twice with a knife near his home in Saransk (240 km south of Gorki) on 16 April. He was immediately taken to hospital. A militia officer said that the attack could be linked to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 31 March 1998 56-year old Ivan Fedyunin, a reporter with the local “Bryanskie Izvestia” newspaper, was murdered. According to his colleagues and the police who found his body on 2 April, Fedyunin was stabbed to death in his apartment. An elderly couple told police that they had heard screams for help but […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to RSF, on 25 March 1998, under a warrant given by the Deputy General Prosecutor Michail Khatyshev, some members of the tax-police staff carried out a search in the flats of two journalists in Saint Petersburg : Liubov Amromina, a television journalist, and Ruslan Linkov, correspondent of some Russian and foreign newspapers. […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to CPJ, on 13 March 1998, Timur Kukuyev and Yuri Safronov, members of a film crew for the local M-5 television station and stringers for the Russian public television company ORT in Makhachkala, Dagestan, were beaten by a group of men dressed in paramilitary uniforms as they tried to film at the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Russian authorities have arrested a second suspect in the October 1994 murder of investigative reporter Dmitry Kholodov and announced that they are close to solving the March 1995 killing of Vladislav Listyev, a prominent Russian Public Television (ORT) executive. **Updates IFEX alerts of 20 February 1998, 3 May 1995 and 18 October 1994 […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly encouraged by news of the arrest of a suspect in the October 1994 murder of Dmitry Kholodov, a reporter with the popular daily “Moskovsky Komsomolets.” He was the first journalist in Russia who became a target for assassins because of his investigative reporting. His murder shocked Russians and frightened media […]

(HRW/IFEX) – On 28 November 1997 at the Russian American Press Center a press conference was to be held on the latest developments in the case of Alexander Nikitin, whom the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accuses of having committed serious anti-state crimes. Scheduled participants in the press conference were: Pavel Gutiontov (Chair of the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – A roundtable organized in Moscow on 19 September 1997 by Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), the Glasnost Defence Foundation and the Russian Journalists’ Union brought together dozens of journalists, media executives and representatives of groups and government departments concerned about the problem of journalists who are taken hostage. **For background, see IFEX press release […]

Closing arguments were expected to be heard on 14 October 1996 in the Moscow Municipal Court trial of journalist and political activist Valeriya Novodvorskaya. She is charged under Article 74 of the Russian Criminal Code with allegedly inciting inter-ethnic discord and belittling the dignity of the Russian nation. The charges against Novodvorskaya stem from writings […]

**For background to reports of missing Ukrainian journalists, see alert of 13 September 1996** CPJ is concerned at the reported kidnapping in Grozny of Natalya Vasenina, editor-in-chief of a local newspaper, “Nezavisimost” (“Independence”). According to the Russian wire services RIA/Novosti and ITAR/TASS, a well-informed source close to the Moscow-backed Chechen government reported that Vasenina was […]

In early August 1996, Eduard Khusnutdinov, editor-in-chief of “Vecherny Neftekamsk”, a newspaper formerly published in Bashkortostan, a constituent republic of the Russian Federation, was notified by a local prosecutor that he could face up to five years of imprisonment for libel of President Murtaza Rakhimov, leader of the autonomous region in the Urals. The independent […]

CPJ has confirmed reports that on 8 August 1996, four members of a Cable News Network (CNN) television crew, travelling in an armoured Land Rover vehicle that was clearly marked with the letters “T.V.” on the roof and sides, were stopped at a Russian military checkpoint on the outskirts of Grozny, the capital of the […]

**Updates IFEX alerts dated 10 July and 19 June 1996** Below is a translation from Russion of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’ reply to CPJ’s letter on Samara journalist Valery Yerofeyev, whose trial on fabricated charges resumed on 8 July 1996 (see IFEX alerts). Following that is the full text of CPJ’s response. Similar […]

Source: Glasnost Defense Foundation, Moscow **Updates IFEX alerts dated 14 May 1996; 30 November, 5 October, 29 August, 23 and 20 June 1995** On 16 July 1996, Sergei Fedotov,the soldier accused of killing Russian journalist Natalya Alyakina, was handed a suspended sentence of two years for “involuntary manslaughter through negligent use of firearms” by a […]

Source: Globus Independent Press Syndicate Media Defence Center, Moscow **Updates IFEX alert dated 19 June 1996** The trial of journalist Valery Yerofeyev resumed in closed session in the Russian provincial city of Samara on 8 July 1996. (The session was adjourned from 21 June to 7 July, apparently in response to local and international protests.) […]