GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION DIGEST No. 479

TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Prosecutor general’s office lists “terrorist helpers”

EVENT OF THE WEEK
Newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti and journalist Mikhail Beketov win international award

RUSSIA
1. Moscow. Rally to mark A. Sakharov’s birth anniversary held in Moscow
2. Kemerovo Region. Veil of secrecy over coal miners’ town
3. Perm Region. Subtitle costs newspaper RUR 5,000
4. Ulan-Ude. Internet instead of beer

TURKMENISTAN
Radio Liberty reporter denied entry visa

GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION
Some statistics cited

OUR PARTNERS
1. Press Development Institute Siberia holds two workshops
2. Provintsiya Publishers’ extends outreach
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TOPIC OF THE WEEK

Prosecutor general’s office lists “terrorist helpers”

Ordered by the State Duma’s Security Committee to find out who in Russia facilitates terrorist activities, RF Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin issued a reply dated May 18 in which some passages, while not particularly surprising, do look perplexing.

The deputy prosecutor general made a whole list of terrorist helpers, among them the already outlawed National Bolsheviks whom Mr. Grin for some unclear reason called “the most well-structured radical youth association”, and the Other Russia Party that has repeatedly been prohibited to hold peaceful actions, and Mikhail Kasyanov’s Russian People’s Democratic Union, and the United Civil Front, and even worshippers of “religions that are not traditional to this country”…

Curiously enough, the prosecutor’s office still feels uneasy about the well-forgotten “color revolutions”: in its view, the National Bolsheviks are dangerous because they propagate “the theory and practice of force resistance to the law enforcement bodies as shown by the ‘color’ revolutions in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.”

Radical Islamists were duly named among the terrorist helpers – but considering the effects of their activities not only in Russia but also worldwide, the prosecutor’s explanations seem redundant because the main source of terrorist threat is clear to anyone.

Speaking about our domestic cares and concerns, Mr. Grin said, as if in passing, that yes, we do have a problem to think over: Russian nationalists are pretty dangerous, too. The real scale of this problem in known to anyone who follows the internal developments: attacks by “Russian patriots” on “aliens” are reported on an almost daily basis, and the consequences of those bloody nationalist actions are far graver than National Bolshevik activities like handcuffing oneself to an office door or writing an indecent slogan on a fence.

By mentioning Russian nationalism as modestly as that, the prosecutor gave a clue to why the “orthodox patriot” who attacked Lyudmila Alexeyeva (see http://www.gdf.ru/digest/item/1/722#event ) received so mild a sentence – a suspended term of imprisonment.

It looks like the prosecutors feel more comfortable fighting dissidents who never hide and are always within reach, if need be, than engaging in the truly serious work of controlling the activity of real, not imaginary, terrorists. But then, it is clear why: professional terrorists can only be stopped by equally professional law enforcers who, unfortunately, are rather rare…
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EVENT OF THE WEEK

Newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti and journalist Mikhail Beketov win international award

The newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti (AV) and journalist Mikhail Beketov have won this year’s Eastern Europe Press Freedom award founded in 1999 by the Oslo-based Fritt Ord Foundation and Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, a fund named after a prominent German lawyer, journalist and publisher.

Michael Goering, chairman of the Zeit-Stiftung, said “We are giving our awards to people defending press freedom, sustaining self-censorship and resisting repression.” The 2010 awards went to three journalists, three newspapers and one TV network: Mikhail Beketov, editor-in-chief, newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, Moscow Region; newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti, Maritime Region; newspaper Borisovskiye Novosti, Minsk Region, Belarus; Liberali magazine, Tbilisi, Georgia; journalist Shakvalad Chobanoglu and ANTV network, Baku, Azerbaijan; and journalist Edik Bugdasarian, editor-in-chief, newspaper Khetk, Yerevan, Armenia.

The award-giving ceremony was held in the Town Hall of Hamburg May 19.

One of the people honored is Mikhail Beketov, who published on the pages of Khimkinskaya Pravda a series of articles about the Khimki forest that is finding itself on the verge of destruction because of a new highway being built between Moscow and St. Petersburg. He was nominated for the Gerd Bucerius award by the Human Rights House Foundation (Oslo) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. The journalist could not attend the ceremony in person because of staying in hospital after his brutal beating by unidentified attackers in November 2008 (see http://www.gdf.ru/digest/item/1/229#event ). He was represented in Hamburg by Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Kostyuchenko who investigated that attack. She says the ceremony was attended by last year’s and this year’s laureates, politicians, artists and journalists. “That was a real holiday for all the award winners who could feel they are not alone and their work is important to all,” Kostyuchenko said. The organizers expressed the hope that “Mikhail’s silence will not last long”.
 
The newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti was nominated for the award by the same two organizations. “We are grateful to those organizations and the high European Jury for including us in the number of seven laureates selected from 47 candidates. And still, our newspaper’s international recognition should be merited in the first place to the efforts of the brilliant team of AV journalists – Tatyana Romanenko, Nadezhda Alisimchik, Marina Zavadskaya and Anna Seleznyova, as well as the young talent, Anastasia Popova and Alexander Rybin, who so enthusiastically and so successfully joined the others in probing serious themes. Our newspaper was filled with new content thanks to the biting, highly topical reports sent in by our regional representatives – Alexandra Nabokova from Dalnerechensk, Olga Kupchinskaya from Spassk and many others. Of course, there are things for which we can be criticized, and there are many persons eager to hit hard. But there are many more friends who respect our principles and the courage of journalists who often have to take risks uncovering the truth,” AV editor Irina Grebneva said.
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RUSSIA

1. Moscow. Rally to mark A. Sakharov’s birth anniversary held in Moscow

A traditional rally was held outside the Andrei Sakharov Museum/Public Center “Peace, Progress and Human Rights” to mark Sakharov’s birth anniversary on May 22.

The first such rally was held in 2006 marking his 85th birth anniversary.
 
The organizers – the Sakharov Museum and the Union of Solidarity with Prisoners of Conscience – invited “everyone honoring Dr. Sakharov’s memory, sharing his ideas and considering human rights as a guide to life and action” to take part in the rally dedicated this time to Russian political prisoners and in the charity concert to raise money for detainees and their families.

The concert brought together actor Alexander Filippenko; poet Igor Irtenyev; script writer/actor/director/satirist Vadim Zhuk; “Rare Bird” – a musical group known for its delicate renditions of Bulat Okudzhava’s poems; and other artistic personalities. 

The event attracted about half a thousand people.

Sakharov’s widow Elena Bonner sent the rally participants a written address calling their attention to the YUKOS trial. “The news about Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s ending his hunger strike is the best possible birthday gift to Andrei Sakharov, made to him posthumously,” the message said.

2. Kemerovo Region. Veil of secrecy over coal miners’ town

Radio Liberty correspondent Alexaner Kulygin was detained in the town of Mezhdurechensk on May 22 while making a video recording at workers’ request inside the office of one of the coal mines. The radio station itself reported on the journalist’s detention.

The mine management and police officers required Kulygin to erase the recording as a condition for his release.

Earlier reports said that a spontaneous rally in Mezhdurechensk on May 14 that involved colleagues and relatives of the victims of the accident at the Raspadskaya coal mine had been dispersed by OMON (special task police) but all the federal TV channels had hushed up that fact.

[Radio Liberty report, May 22]

3. Perm Region. Subtitle costs newspaper RUR 5,000

By Vassily Moseyev,
GDF staff correspondent in Volga Federal District

The civil law collegium of the regional court in Perm has turned down an appeal filed by the newspaper Chastinskiye Vesti against a primary court’s ruling requiring it to refute its publication “Hospital in Need of Resuscitation” and pay Svetlana Rubtsova, the former chief physician of the Chastinsky District Hospital, RUR 5,000 in moral damage compensation.

It would seem this is a pretty ordinary situation: nearly all media outlets have to defend in court against legal claims and many lose their cases. And the sum claimed by the chief physician (about USD 170) is not ruinous even to a district newspaper. But the same regional court decision canceled the district court ruling to award compensation to the Chastinsky Hospital, whose new head personally came to the Vesti office to grant and sign an interview in which he blamed the hospital’s multi-million debts, unpaid taxes, wage payment defaults, etc. on his predecessor whom he described as a “sloppy worker” who had brought the hospital into a financial deadlock. The regional court, in contrast to the district court, found all the facts cited in the interview to be true to life and confirmed by documents, and the interviewee’s evaluative statements to be nothing but “expressions of a personal opinion”. So the text turned out absolutely impeccable from the viewpoint of law.

Meanwhile, the newspaper said in the subtitle that “the district leader terminated the former chief physician’s contract because of her unsatisfactory performance”. Rubtsova, for her part, produced a document showing that her contract had simply expired, which is a totally different thing. Since the newspaper bears full responsibility for the titles and subtitles of its publications, it will have to pay compensation, after all.

4. Ulan-Ude. Internet instead of beer

By Marina Meteleva,
GDF staff correspondent in Siberian Federal District

For the first time ever in Siberia and the Far East, Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude has launched a project called “Internet Square” to provide open-air access to the worldwide web.

Using Wi-Fi technology, the organizers are planning to turn the city’s central square into a  zone of free access to the Internet within the city network for anyone having a notebook, netbook, a pocket PC, a cell phone, etc. to come to the square, sit down on a bench and get connected to the city web resources free of charge.

The basic pads for the project are two sectors of the square – one near the Opera Theater, the other between the Central Post Office and Parliament, where there are always many young people (the main users of this kind of services) and there are office buildings where the wireless web equipment can be installed.

Any PC user will be able to get access to the websites and news portals of the republican and municipal government bodies, service agencies, as well as to educational and entertainment websites.

Up until now, there have been no open-air pads in Ulan-Ude providing free access to the Internet. The ones existing inside buildings and offices have provided web connections for pay without any limitations.
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TURKMENISTAN

Radio Liberty reporter denied entry visa

Radio Liberty correspondent Allamurad Rakhimov has been prohibited to enter Turkmenistan without any explanation.

An ethnic Turkmenian, Rakhimov has worked for Radio Liberty since 2003. When he arrived in the home country to visit his native village in the south-eastern region of Mary, he was told at Ashgabat airport he could not enter Turkmenistan.

The journalist himself sees the ban as linked to his professional activities.

Journalists cooperating with foreign media, including Radio Liberty, have repeatedly been subjected to pressure and persecution in Turkmenistan. In the summer of 2008, RL freelance reporter Sazak Durdymuradov was detained by Turkmenian secret agents and, according to Reporters Without Borders, subjected to torture. Two years earlier, another freelance correspondent, Ogulsapar Muradova, had been arrested and charged with conspiring against the then president, Saparmurat Niyazov. She died in prison later.

[Lenta.ru report, May 24]
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GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION

Some statistics cited

Last week, the Glasnost Defense Foundation was referred to at least 20 times in the Internet, including at:

http://www.ifex.org/russia/2010/05/21/ibragimov_killed/
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=4BF507AB2DA49
http://penza-online.ru/news.23935.htm
http://www.cogita.ru/news/otchety/o-karte-glasnosti-za-2009-god
http://www.civitas.ru/news.php?code=9084
http://www.penza-online.ru/news.23945.htm
http://www.penza-online.ru/news.23949.htm
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=4BF12A85B42B4
http://www.stapravda.ru/20100520/iv_bal_stavropolskoy_pressy_sostoyalsya_v_nevinnomysske_45453.html
http://www.kurer-sreda.ru/2010/05/20/25634
http://news.1777.ru/society/3678-sostojalsja-iv-bal-stavropolskojj-pressy.html
http://www.stavregion.ru/main/news/?pubID=15183
http://www.pnz.ru/getnews.php?tid=news&&news_id=34181
http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2010/05/21_x_3371046.shtml
http://www.specletter.com/news/2010-05-21/8476.html
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OUR PARTNERS

1. Press Development Institute Siberia holds two workshops

The Press Development Institute Siberia has held two workshops, “Civil Journalism and Human Rights: Pro & Contra”, in Voronezh, May 11-12, and in Nizhny Novgorod, May 13-14.

Journalists, editors and media head managers from the two regions discussed human rights, methods and techniques of civil journalism, new concepts of media development (including interactive web technology), and the latest amendments to media legislation. Practical classes focused on methods of conducting public investigations using the tak-tak-tak.ru website. The group of trainers included Galina Arapova, director of the Media Rights Defense Center (Voronezh); Mikhail Morozov, chairman of the Arbitration Court of Siberia; and Viktor Yukechev, director of the Press Development Institute Siberia (both from Novosibirsk).

Participants appreciated the timeliness, relevance and high technological level of the workshop. “Civil journalism will contribute to civil society development,” said Maria Ponomaryova, municipal TV reporter from Novovoronezh. “Analysis of the wide range of approaches to news presentation discussed will help me grab and hold the reader’s attention,” Diana Kasumova, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Zvezda, Belgorod Region, believes. “I would like as many of my colleagues as possible to attend this kind of workshops,” said Svetlana Sokolova of the newspaper Znamya Truda, Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The next two seminars under the program “I Have the Right…” will be held by PDI Siberia in Novosibirsk (May 19-20) and Perm (May 25-26).

The program is implemented in four Russian regions – Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Perm – with financial assistance from the USAID and with technical support by the Management Systems International (MSI).

2. Provintsiya Publishers’ extends outreach

Provintsiya Publishers’ is extending its geographical outreach, adding Bashkortostan to the 25 regions where Provintsiya weeklies are issued. It has resumed the release of Ufimsky Meridian (UM), a newspaper with a circulation of 10,000 distributed throughout the republic.

Actually, Ufimsky Meridian is fairly well known to the readers: it had been issued for several years before the publishing house had to suspend its release in October 2008 for a number of reasons. Ever since, local residents have repeatedly asked the publishers to re-launch their favorite newspaper. Several businessmen offered to take on the costs of UM restoration. Now the newspaper is again on sale. Provintsiya is planning to reopen several other closed newspapers and expand to other regions, providing coverage of events of both regional and nationwide significance. For advertisers, that would mean enlarging the audience of potential clients and broadening the opportunities to promote their goods and services in other Russian regions as well.

[Provintsiya Publishers’ press service report, May 12] ____________________________________________________________________________

This Digest has been prepared by the Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF), http://www.gdf.ru.

We appreciate the support of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Digest released once a week, on Mondays, since August 11, 2000.
Distributed by e-mail to 1,600 subscribers in and outside Russia.

Editor-in-chief: Alexei Simonov

Editorial board: Boris Timoshenko – Monitoring Service chief, Pyotr Polonitsky – head of GDF regional network, Svetlana Zemskova – lawyer, Vsevolod Shelkhovskoy – translator, Alexander Yefremov – web administrator in charge of Digest distribution.


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