Click
here to read CPJ's protest letter to President Putin.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in RUSSIA
New York, May 12, 2000 --- Russian journalists and politicians
expressed outrage over yesterday's commando-style police raid on the
offices of a media company that has often been critical of Russian
government policy, according to news reports.
The influential centrist daily Izvestiya warned that police
searches could " become a prologue to serious problems with freedom
of speech," while former prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko reportedly
described the raid as "a public act of intimidation, discrediting
the government." Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov said in response to the
raid that Russia "faces a real danger of seeing its freedom of the
press stifled," according to the Interfax news agency.
"The raid by masked men armed with machine guns
into the company's building has prompted all-round dismay," said former
prime minister Yevgeni Primakov. Even journalists employed by media
belonging to Media-Most's arch-rival, business tycoon Boris Berezovsky,
said the authorities had overstepped the mark. The Berezovsky-owned
daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta editorialized today that the attack
"was clearly ill-conceived from the viewpoint of its possible negative
impact on public opinion."
In its first reaction to the uproar, meanwhile, the Kremlin issued
a statement reaffirming president Vladimir Putin's support for freedom
of speech. (At the time of the raid, Putin was in the Kremlin meeting
with U.S. media magnate Ted Turner.)
Up to 40 investigators and police commandos, some dressed in ski masks
and camouflage and carrying submachine guns, arrived at the Moscow
headquarters of Media-Most at 9.30 a.m. on May 11. Police searched
the company's offices for over 12 hours, NTV spokesperson Tatyana
Blinova told CPJ. The police left in the late evening, laden with
boxes of documents, video cassettes, and computer parts.
Media-Most believes the raid was "a show of force," Blinova said.
"The security agencies do not like our coverage of Chechnya," she
added, "nor our investigations into government corruption."
Media-Most, which is headed by business tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky,
owns NTV Television, Ekho Moskvy radio, the daily newspaper Segodnya,
and the weekly news magazine Itogi.
According to Russian news agencies, the Kremlin said today in a statement
that "the president is firmly convinced that freedom of speech and
freedom of the media are immutable values." The statement added that
Putin believed everyone was equal before the law, no matter what business
they were in.
Officials have given contradictory explanations for the raid. Yesterday,
government sources said it was connected to an investigation into
irregularities at the Ministry of Finance. Today, officials said the
search was part of a criminal investigation against Media-Most. A
spokesperson for the Federal Security Service (FSB) variously described
the case as involving a financial offence and as being connected with
Media-Most's alleged use of illegal listening devices.
Blinova said the company's legal office was looking into filing a
lawsuit against FSB spokesman Aleksander Zdanovich, who made the allegations
of illegal bugging against Media-Most.
CPJ Europe program coordinator Emma Gray condemned the raid. "Violence
and intimidation of a media company have no place in a democratic
society," she said. "We call on Russian authorities to explain their
actions without delay."
END
Click here to read CPJ's protest letter to President Putin.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in RUSSIA
