Glasnost defence foundation digest No. 576

30 July 2012

STORY OF THE WEEK

Not to drown in lies: Aftermath of high flood in Krymsk

By Georgy Tashmatov, GDF correspondent in Southern Federal District

Power, water and gas supplies were switched off in the flooded city of Krymsk on 7 July, but the local TV/radio channel “Elektron” kept working and reporting on what was going on. Locals called this impromptu “emergency centre” to describe their distressed position and complain that they had expected to get at least some emergency relief three, or five, or seven days after the tragedy, but never actually got it. Later, they would call to complain about bureaucratic red tape and total indifference accompanying the distribution of compensations to victims… People spoke live on the radio about official malpractices and omissions straight from the shoulder. A few days later, a chain of inspections by different controlling bodies began.

The sole source of information for thousands of flood victims, the Krymsk TV/radio company found itself pressured really hard by controllers. The formal pretext for an unplanned inspection by Rospotrebnadzor [federal agency charged with overseeing observance of sanitary rules and defending consumer rights] was a complaint by a local woman who said Elektron hampered her reception of federal TV broadcasts. (When journalists met with that woman, she could not remember what her complaint was all about.) A similar message was received at about the same time from an elderly man living 10km away from the TV station, who claimed he was feeling unwell exclusively because of the operation of Elektron transmitters.

Both letters were printed out (old folks in Krymsk have PCs with printers at home, to be sure!) and looked as if someone had dictated their texts to the authors. Complaints of that kind are sent to the company management each time a sharply critical material goes on the air or appears on the pages of the Elektron-TV newspaper. Before the tragedy, journalists used to take that hackneyed form of pressure for granted. After it, they had quite a few angry questions to ask. Don’t people in a flooded city have other things to worry about, and don’t Rospotrebnadzor officials have other things to inspect? And, if you come to think of it, how could a letter possibly get to Moscow from a distressed city over so short a time?

The Rospotrebnadzor inspectors found Elektron Director Nikolai Popov at the TV station and immediately asked him to present the company’s documentation for checking. They did not allow him a couple of days to get prepared. They came later that day bringing witnesses, whom they introduced as tenants of the house on the roof of which an Elektron transmitter was installed. The witnesses refused to show their IDs. They walked on into the TV station’s lobby and started to say nasty things to the director, like “A prison cell is waiting for you!” Clearly, that was meant to be a provocation.

A crowd of people had gathered in the lobby by that time. Flood victims came to Elektron studios to get humanitarian relief; radio editor Valery Donskoy and his team linked aid-seekers on the air with those volunteering to provide assistance. On hearing “inspection”, “shut down”, etc., people got really angry. “We know whom Elektron makes feel mad – not us ordinary folks, that’s for sure!” they said. The inspectors chose to retreat – only to dump on law enforcement a few days later a heap of complaints about “barriers placed by Elektron staffers in the way of an official inspection”.

“Our company has always been on rather cool terms with the authorities,” Elektron Chief Editor Lina Popova said. “Last spring, the district administration held a conference on a potential high flood and measures to be taken in an emergency situation. We offered to show special video clips, since the district had already been flooded in the past. I told the conferees that Elektron relayed TNT and CTC broadcasts round the clock, and the Elektron-FM radio station aired its own broadcasts and was ready to transmit emergency warnings for the population – free of charge, of course. But authorities and Emergency Situations Ministry officials showed no enthusiasm about my offer. From the outset, the district administration had stressed it had its own media pool, and that other media was of no interest to it – and this despite the fact that our audience is many times larger than that of the administration’s print and online media pool. They seldom invite us to cover official events, habitually deny official information to our reporters, and reply to our written inquiries with reluctance. But then, we’ve never paid too much attention to administration attempts to hold us at arm’s length.”

“During the first few days after the tragedy, people came to our studios by the dozen,” Elektron-FM chief editor Valery Donskoy said. “On the night of 7 July, Krymsk Mayor Vladimir Ulanovsky, District Police Chief Igor Matsarsky and Russia’s Chief Sanitary Physician Gennady Onishchenko spoke to residents live on the air. So did prominent journalists and politicians, government officials and ordinary people. Not surprisingly, some of them criticised the authorities for failure to effectively manage the emergency situation. Indeed, the city found itself in a state of deep crisis during the first few hours after the tragedy, and outbursts of negative emotions became part of our broadcasts. A press centre was spontaneously formed in the dry wing of our TV/radio company, where reporters worked and slept, among them colleagues from St. Petersburg (Channel Five), Moscow (ITAR-TASS, Izvestia, The Moscow News, Mir, The Russian News Service, Dozhd, RBK, and Ekho Moskvy), as well as foreign reporters – from The New York Times, ORF (Austria), Radio Liberty and the BBC. They spoke highly of Elektron’s taking over as the chief source of information for news-thirsty residents at a time when the city administration found itself at a loss what to do. We worked like an emergency valve, letting off steam from an overheated boiler and thus helping stabilise the level of social tensions. We had no special task set before us – we just acted as our conscience and professional duty prompted.”

Having coped with their initial fears, local officials quickly reacted to what they thought to be journalists’ attempts to “discredit” the authorities. Mr. Vassilyev, acting head of the city administration, summoned Elektron Director Nikolai Popov to his office – as it turned out, for a dressing-down. On seeing that no normal conversation would follow, Popov simply walked away.

Rospotrebnadzor’s inspection of the TV company’s sanitary conditions looks like undisguised aggression. “Clearly, not a single institution can pass a sanitary inspection after so bad a deluge,” Popov said. “And the time they will allow us for cleaning things up will, of course, be too short for us to cope with the task.”

This demonstrative whipping of a TV/radio company whose journalists showed a rare example of commitment to their profession during a tragic time is indeed disgusting: those journalists deserve public recognition and government awards instead! The RF Journalists’ Union and its regional branch must stand up for their colleagues and offer them comprehensive support. The devastating tragedy in Krymsk, which is notorious for the inefficiency and incompetence of local crisis managers, nevertheless gives reasons for optimism, however paradoxical this may sound. It shows that Russian journalism has started rising in the provinces. And we must do everything to ensure that the new sprouts it gave in Krymsk are not drowned in lies.

[Krymsk-Krasnodar]

EVENT OF THE WEEK

Revised NGO law endorsed by President

The scandalous NGO bill enacted by the State Duma and approved by the Federation Council has now been signed into law by President Putin. From now on, any non-profit organisation funded by foreign donors and not distancing itself from politics will have to register as a “foreign agent”.

Russian human rights activists have already condemned this new toughening of Russian legislation, which actually freezes the work of rights organisation on Russian soil.

The West has had its say too: the EU Council, Britain’s Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State have all severely criticised the new Russian law on NGOs. That’s not the main point, though.

What is of real importance is how the revised NGO law will be reconciled with the Russian Constitution, which is “a must” if this country wants to live in accordance with common, not underworld, law.

One nuance raises particular concerns. There still are some human rights defenders on the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Development, who fall under the category of “foreign agents” in terms of the amended NGO law. It is hard to imagine how the president will structure his work with these “foreign agents” – or will he start “re-recruiting” them, as he used to do in his green years?

Contacts with “agents”, per se, breed suspicions. Either you beat them or they’ll beat you – tertium non datur… The fact that the “contacting person” holds this country’s highest official position may only cause people to feel still more worried.

As it turns out, the new law is spearheaded not against human rights defenders alone. Then the question arises as to what the reformists were actually after when pushing their amendments to the “old” law…

RUSSIA

Editor in Rostov Region fired for sixth (sic!) time

By Anna Lebedeva, GDF correspondent in Southern Federal District

Irina Vassilyeva has again – for the sixth time – turned to court to get reinstated as editor of the newspaper Novocherkasskiye Vesti (NV). This time, the dismissal paper only said her replacement had been ordered by the newspaper owner, the city administration’s Property Management Committee. It was because of the absurdity of the reasons cited in the previous dismissal orders that Vassilyeva had won each of the five previous trials.

But citing no reason at all for sacking an editor is still less lawful, so Vassilyeva can well hope to be reinstated again. The only “but” is how she might hope to continue working in a disfavoured newspaper that the mayor’s office has taken pains to ruin. NV’s debt amounts to nearly a million roubles; the newspaper is in bad default on salary payments to journalists; its new director has not paid taxes or utility service bills for several months now – there’s no money to pay for anything. Back at the time when NV was in favour with the city administration, the latter paid for the publication of its official documents. Today, this official stuff is published by the Novocherkassk Ofitsialny bulletin, which is released in 999 copies and therefore even doesn’t have to register. City dwellers do not know where to read the official documents they need – the bulletin is not on sale in the press kiosks.

NV, for its part, is finding itself down and out: after it fell into disfavour, it lost not only the official orders but also its advertisers. No one in the province wants to quarrel with the Communist mayor and his “ideology team”, because they may do nasty things in revenge. For example, by one of the new director’s latest personnel policy decisions, an ordinary driver with no accounting, financial or other economic education was appointed NV’s chief accounting officer (in line with the charter, that appointment was to be co-ordinated with the Property Management Committee). Small wonder, therefore, that not only journalists but also accountants have started resigning one after another, unwilling to work under the guidance of such a “specialist”.

“I intend to ask the prosecutor’s office to start legal proceedings against my persecutors under Article 136 of the RF Criminal Code (‘Violation of equal rights, liberties or lawful interests of a person and citizen’),” Irina Vassilyeva said. “They’ve been waging a real harassment campaign against me – they video recorded me packing things and leaving the office after my latest dismissal. And after I left, they put a bright signboard on my desk, which read, ‘The whore is out working’. The visiting Rostov Region Deputy Minister of Internal and Information Policy, Oleg Bessmertny, took that board away. To crown it all, my journalistic archives, gathered into packets, were smeared with printing ink.”

Now that the disagreeable editor has been sacked for the sixth time, NV started, at long last, to feature numerous portraits of the mayor, along with reports about his “remarkable achievements” in all areas, from community services to culture. And, of course, about his efforts to promote freedom of expression…

Senator’s daughter in Perm fails to attend hearings of her legal claim

See Digest 561

By Mikhail Lobanov, GDF correspondent in Volga Federal District

Olga Shubina, daughter of RF Federation Council member Igor Shubin, has twice failed to attend hearings of her legal claim against the regional newspaper Zvezda in defence of her honour, dignity and business reputation, with 1 million roubles demanded in moral damages; so the Motovilikhinsky district court in Perm took no action in respect of her claim.

The plaintiff claimed hurt by Zvezda’s 1 March 2011 article describing criminal adventures of Artyom Lukin, Olga’s ex-husband and former son-in-law of Perm Senator Shubin, a member of the ruling United Russia party. Having served a prison term for violent group robbery and deliberate infliction of grievous bodily harm that resulted in the victim’s reckless killing, Lukin was then sentenced to another term for fraud and on 6 December 2011 was released from the penal colony on 2-year parole.

He and Shubina, who performed as a public counsel for the defence during her ex-husband’s fraud trial, immediately lodged two legal claims against journalists, demanding a total of 1.5 million roubles in moral damages. Specifically, Shubina subscribed under a passage saying that the newspaper’s mention of the fact of her being Lukin’s ex-wife and Senator Shubin’s daughter “constituted – in the context of the article – an instance of spreading false information about my family, my father and my former husband”.

After the defendant presented in court written objections with supporting documents proving the accuracy of the information reported in the article, Lukin and Shubina first reconsidered their claims, slashing the claimed compensation amounts substantially, and then preferred not to appear in court, although duly notified of the dates of hearings. As prescribed by the RF Code of Civil Procedure, Judge Anna Slavinskaya dismissed their claims on 1 June and 9 July.

Journalists in Khabarovsk call Nurgaliyev and Kolokoltsev to court as witnesses

By Olga Vassilyeva, GDF correspondent in Far Eastern Federal District

Police Colonel Ivan Ilts has filed a legal claim in defence of honour, dignity and business reputation against Khabarovsky Ekspress (KE) journalists Konstantin Pronyakin and Irina Kharitonova. The officer stood up for the police as a whole and for former Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev in person. He did not forget about his own interests, either, writing in the claim that “the article ‘Colonel Ilts’ Son Acquitted Unlawfully’, published in April 2012 for an indefinite number of people to read, disparaged my honour, dignity and business reputation”.

The plaintiff cited the federal law “On the Police” several times, as well as the Ethical Code of the RF Interior Ministry Officer. He objected to a “police-jargon” phrase used by the article’s author in respect of an “appointed culprit”, and dismissed the very supposition that a police jargon exists. “Russian is the state language throughout the Russian Federation, and it is this language, or else one spoken in a republic within the RF, that must be used by the police in its public and legal activities,” he wrote.

Ilts also lodged a claim against journalists for their reprinting the 27 March article “A Tragedy Marked ‘Classified’” from the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, which said, “The Interior Ministry has carried out a special operation to conceal the involvement of Nurgaliyev’s wife in a road accident.” The colonel claimed hurt by the following lines in an ad preceding the publication: “In our next issue: a story about how the police can put pressure on witnesses, forge documents and hide evidence – on the example of Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and his wife.”

To prove that the ex-minister’s wife was not involved in the road accident, that no one attempted to conceal the truth from the public, and that our police has an absolutely impeccable reputation, journalists must call Rashid Nurgaliyev, who is currently Deputy Secretary at the Security Council, and his successor, Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the incumbent Interior Minister, to court as witnesses – which is what they actually intend to do in the course of further proceedings.

Trans-Baikal Culture Ministry at law with journalist

By Marina Meteleva, GDF correspondent in Siberian Federal District

The Central district court in Chita has held preliminary hearings of a claim in defence of honour, dignity and business reputation lodged by the Trans-Baikal Region Culture Ministry against Ilya Barinov, a reporter for ZabMedia.ru.

The claim was filed in the wake of the article “A Feeding-Trough for Culture Ministry?” posted on ZabMedia.ru on 23 April and dedicated to historical monuments. “A list of cultural heritage sites featured on the Culture Ministry’s website mentions about six thousand monuments,” the article said. “Let’s take those which anyone can see – Chita’s old houses, 373 all in all. But a ride about the city will show that nearly 40 of them no longer exist, with newly-built apartment houses standing in their stead. Also, the ministry’s list mentions more than 3,000 archaeological monuments, tombs and memorial plaques, all of which are in a deplorable state. Why has the historical heritage been vanishing in the region? And why would the Culture Ministry want those dead monuments? In a report on her ministry’s performance in the Trans-Baikal Region in 2011, Culture Minister Galina Syrovatka used a figure that looked odd enough to make it difficult to understand whether last year’s expenditures amounted to 776 million or to 77.6 million roubles. How much was actually spent on the restoration of historical monuments in 2011? And where exactly did that money go?”

The ministry found the article smearing, insulting and damaging to its reputation.

In the first version of its legal claim, the Culture Ministry demanded 2 million roubles from Barinov in moral damages, together with a disclaimer and personal apologies to the ministry specialists. Today, it is claiming only 700,000 roubles from the journalist and his website’s owners, and demanding that the defendants announce the would-be court ruling on ZabMedia.ru.

The revised version of the claim lists notably fewer phrases about which the ministry feels unhappy – nine in all, most of them quotes from statements by Merited Russian Architect Viktor Kulesh, whom the ministry asked to be a figurant in the case.

[Based on ZabMedia.ru reports]

Liberty better than non-freedom (Omsk)

By Georgy Borodyansky, GDF correspondent in Siberian Federal District

Anna Zholnerchuk, an anchor at Radio Ekho Moskvy in Omsk (EMO), has been fired for collaboration with Radio Liberty.

The management of the Antenna-7 TV/radio company producing EMO broadcasts among others, told Zholnerchuk to choose between resigning voluntarily and getting sacked for violating corporate ethical rules (she was repeatedly caught performing as a freelance reporter for Radio Liberty).

Many colleagues see her dismissal as politically underpinned. Journalist Vyacheslav Surikov, who once taught journalism to Zholnerchuk at the Humanitarian University in Omsk, wrote in his blog that “Anna is one of those rare professionals who manage to refrain from diving deep into the propaganda cesspool”.

For many years now, EMO has maintained rather loose contacts with its mother radio station in Moscow. Until recently, its regional broadcasts sounded more like an endless conference of regional government officials with the man whose name had for more than 20 years been the symbol of local victories and achievements. After Leonid Polezhayev stepped down as governor two months ago, little has changed at EMO: the ex-governor’s name is still mentioned, although less frequently than before; hour-long monologues of local ministers are no longer heard, with prominent athletes, artists, scholars and other celebrities speaking in their stead (as they did under Governor Polezhayev, though); but the sounds of real life are not heard through the famous radio station’s window in Omsk, either: after the sacking of Anna Zholnerchuk, who used to report on street marches, hunger strikes and sit-ins, there is no one left to open that window.

During the 2010 Vmeste-Radio Festival in Siberia, where Ekho Moskvy Deputy Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Varfolomeyev was a member of the jury, Zholnerchuk won the second prize in the “Best Reporter” nomination – an unmatched achievement among the Omsk radio journalists in many years.

“If the TV/radio company management feels so bad about Anna Zholnerchuk’s collaboration with Radio Liberty,” Surikov wrote, “why pay their staffers so humiliatingly meagre salaries as to compel them to look for ways of earning a bit extra on the side?” It is worthy of noting that the region’s largest businessman Valery Kokorin, a United Russia representative at the Omsk Legislative Assembly and a close friend of the former governor, remains Antenna-7’s main shareholder.

Today, Anna Zholnerchuk enjoys full freedom in all senses of this word. Asked by SuperOmsk.ru if she isn’t concerned “with the prospect of getting a ‘foreign agent’ status,” she said, “Radio Liberty operates the world over, openly saying it is funded by the U.S. Congress. What of it? I feel absolutely fine about it. On Radio Liberty, I can say anything I wouldn’t ever be able to say on channels funded by the Russian government.”

Monument to murdered journalists to be put up in Makhachkala

By Vakha Chapanov, GDF correspondent in North Caucasian Federal District

A ceremony to lay the foundation stone of a monument to journalists who died performing their duty was held outside the Press Publishing Centre in Makhachala on 25 July. The event brought together journalists, government officials and participants in a media forum underway in the Dagestani capital at the time.

The monument will be erected “to honour the memory of Dagestani journalists who died while performing their civil and professional duty of fighting extremism and terrorism,” the Dagestani president’s administration said.

Dagestani Journalists’ Union Chairman Ali Kamalov voiced disapproval of the way the journalists’ murders have been investigated. The republic has lost 16 journalists – “the most talented and courageous of us,” he noted.

Of that number of journalists killed in Dagestan since 1992, the latest killing – of Khadzhimurad Kamalov, publisher of the newspaper Chernovik – caused the broadest public repercussions. A conference of public activists and media representatives in Makhachkala on 18 December 2011 decided to establish a civil committee to carry out full-scale investigations into the murdered journalists’ cases.

KAZAKHSTAN

Adil Soz Foundation’s monitoring data on media rights violations

The monitoring unit of the Adil Soz international committee in defence of freedom of expression registered a total of 84 reports on media and journalist rights violations in June 2012, among them the following:

- Marat Madalimov, a reporter for the newspaper Khalyk Sozi, became the target of an attack;

- The authorities declined to start legal proceedings in connection with murder threats against Denis Danilevsky, chief editor of the newspaper Flash;

- Journalists in Zyryanovsk were barred from attending public hearings of a project to develop a new gold deposit in the Solovyovskoye ore zone;

- A court of law satisfied a legal claim lodged by Uralsk Prosecutor Batyr Dzhazbayev against the owner of the newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, its chief editor Tamara Yeslyamova and correspondent Talgat Umarov;

- A court of law ordered seizure of the property of the owner of the newspaper Vecherny Taldykorgan.

For further details, click on www.adilsoz.kz

GLASNOST DEFENCE FOUNDATION

Conflicts registered by GDF Monitoring Service on RF territory in June 2012

Attacks on journalists – 7 (Pavel Glazunov and Yuri Yermakov, film crew of Vesti-Moskva TV show, Moscow Region; Konstantin Rodionov, director, Sport-34 web portal, Volgograd; Eldar Salamov, reporter, Russia Today TV channel, Moscow; Mikhail Ognev, photo correspondent, Fontanka.ru web newspaper, St. Petersburg; Sergei Guryanov, correspondent, regional issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ulyanovsk; film crew of Channel One, Moscow; Nikita Ishmuratov, chief editor, Kazanweek.ru web portal, Kazan).

Instances of censorship – 1 (Saratovskaya Oblastnaya Gazeta newspaper, Saratov).

Criminal charges against journalists and media – 3 (Bozhena Rynska, columnist, Gazeta.ru, Moscow; Vladimir Andreichenko, blogger, Kostroma – two charges).

Detention by police, FSB, etc. – 3 (Dmitry Remizov, journalist, RosBalt news agency, Rostov Region; Vladimir Varfolomeyev, deputy editor-in-chief, and journalists Alina Grebneva, Natella Boltyanskaya and Olga Bychkova, Ekho Moskvy radio station, Moscow; Alexander Podrabinek, freelance journalist, Moscow; Andrei Boltachev, chief editor, SKAT TV company, Kirov Region).

Refusals to provide information (including bans on use of audio recorders and video/photo cameras; refusals to provide accreditation; restrictions on admittance to official events held by government bodies, industrial enterprises or state institutions) – 18.

Threats against journalists and media – 5 (Sergei Sokolov, chief editor, Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Moscow; Yulia Latynina, journalist, Ekho Moskvy and Novaya Gazeta, Moscow; Mikhail Ognev, photo correspondent, Fontanka.ru web newspaper, St. Petersburg; film crew of Channel One, Moscow; Ivan Zhuravlev, journalist, Ozyorsky Krai newspaper, Moscow Region).

Refusal to print (or distribute) media – 1 (Krasny Put newspaper, Omsk).

Interference with radio or TV broadcasts – 1 (SKAT TV company, Kirov Region).

Closure of media – 3 (Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye newspaper, Samara Region; Omsky Vestnik-Delovaya Sreda magazine, Kriminal Ekspress newspaper, both based in Omsk).

Withdrawal (purchase, seizure) of print run – 1 (Vechorka newspaper, Chita).

Interference with Internet publications – 10 (website of Novaya Gazeta; website of Dozhd TV channel; website Slon.ru; website of Ekho Moskvy radio station – twice; website of BankFax; website of Amitel news agency; website of PolitSibRu news agency; website of Amur.info news agency; website Zhurdom).

Confiscation of or damage to photo, video or audio apparatus and computers – 2 (PC of Sergei Yezhov, observer for Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Ryazan; video camera of REN TV channel, Moscow).

Other forms of pressure/infringement of journalists’ rights – 26.

Letters

The staff of the Ozyorsky Krai newspaper (based in the Moscow Region) has complained to the Glasnost Defence Foundation about threats coming to their colleague Ivan Zhuravlyov after he published his story “Dazzled by Sunlight” about a road accident that involved Larisa Stolyarova, press secretary to the mayor of Ozyory, who was then found guilty by a court of law of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a lady pedestrian. Shortly after the story appeared, Zhuravlyov started receiving threats from Stolyarova’s relatives. Someone cut his car’s tyres with a knife. And on 26 July, Stolyarova and her husband Artyom Danilov attempted to run Zhuravlyov down with their car. With four reports filed with the district police, no action whatever has been taken to defend the journalist’s rights.

The GDF has carefully studied the situation around Ozyorsky Krai and its author Ivan Zhuravlyov. We feel concerned over law enforcement’s inaction in the face of threats against Zhuravlyov in connection with his professional work – his publication of a series of reports about criminal proceedings involving the Ozyory mayor’s press secretary. Those threats were not only verbal; they took the form of actions endangering the journalist’s health and life.

Yet no criminal proceedings have been started by law enforcers. Instead of supporting a journalist in distress, the prosecutor’s office in Ozyory joined the persecution campaign against Zhuravlyov by accepting for scrutiny a request for starting administrative proceedings against him on charges of libel in respect of the mayoral spokeswoman.

The GDF Monitor shows the number of threats received by journalists in connection with their professional activities has notably increased of late. We therefore see it as our duty to draw public attention to the repeated threats addressed to journalist Ivan Zhuravlyov; we hereby urge law enforcement to take steps to protect his rights and liberties.

Alexei Simonov,
President, Glasnost Defence Foundation

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