{"id":92289,"date":"2011-12-14T15:28:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=2842"},"modified":"2011-12-14T15:28:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:28:15","slug":"kommersant-publishing-house-editor-in-chief-fired-for-anti-putin-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=92289","title":{"rendered":"Kommersant publishing house editor-in-chief fired for anti-Putin photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alisher Usmanov, a metal tycoon and owner of Russia\u2019s leading Kommersant publishing house, fired Kommersant Vlast magazine editor-in-chief Maxim Kovalsky and Kommersant-Holdingexecutive director Andrey Galiev.<\/p>\n

The reason for the dismissals, according to Usmanov, was the magazine\u2019s latest issue<\/a> which talked about alleged\u00a0mass fraud <\/a>in parliamentary elections in Russia, particularly expatriates voting in London and witnessing election law violations. The publication included photos of graffiti and a bullet with foul against Russian prime-minister and\u00a0United Russia leader Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photos bordered on petty hooliganism, Usmanov told journalists, claiming he had never interfered in editorial policy before. But according to Kommersant Vlast deputy editor Veronika Kutsillo, he had expressed displeasure over previous publications of Kommersant Vlast. Kutsillo is resigning in protest over the firing of her colleagues.<\/p>\n

Kommersant publishing house chief executive Demyan Kudryavtsev also tried to resign, but not in protest. He favoured Usmanov\u2019s decision, claiming it had nothing to do with censorship, and saying he was sorry he hadn\u2019t stopped the publication of the photos as they violated journalistic standards, Russian law and Kommersant internal rules.\u00a0He kept his post, and his statements didn\u2019t surprise fellow journalists.<\/p>\n

Demyan Kudryavtsev supported the removal of Russia\u2019s leading independent monitor GOLOS\u00a0<\/a>special project The Map of Election Violations\u00a0from Gazeta.ru website. Kovalsky denied accusations, explaining it was essential to publish the bulletin photo as it was evidence of election law violation — the bulletin was marked with a vote for Yabloko opposition party, but was considered spoiled because of the obscene words against Putin.<\/p>\n

Kommersant journalists appealed to the public with an open letter protesting against Kovalsky’s dismissal and considering it “an attempt to intimidate them in order to prevent any critics of Vladimir Putin”. They highlighted that the justification for the dismissal from Kommersant (“violation of journalistic standards”) is “a forgery, just like the one that insulted people on elections”.<\/p>\n

Russian Journalists\u2019 Union head Vsevolod Bogdanov accused Kommersant superiors of censorship, predicting dramatic changes in Kommersant human resources policy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile another oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, who has announced he will run in the presidential election campaign, said he wants to buy the Kommersant publishing house. Usmanov regarded Prokhorov\u2019s offer as a joke, but Kommersant journalists say official negotiations may still be held.<\/p>\n

Usmanov\u2019s actions are seen as examples of two processes in Russia. The first shows how media are controlled by oligarchs who stay loyal to Putin, in exchange for his permission to operate superprofits and stay in Forbes\u2019 list of Russia\u2019s richest men. The price oligarchs pay in this deal is abusing the core principle of media independence by intruding the editorial policy or using antiextremism legislation to silence free speech.<\/p>\n

The second\u00a0process includes the government\u2019s and pro-Kremlin oligarchs concerns on staying at or close to power, which is threatened by more people getting to know that the parliamentary elections were allegedly marked with mass fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alisher Usmanov, a metal tycoon and owner of Russia\u2019s leading Kommersant publishing house, fired Kommersant Vlast magazine editor-in-chief Maxim Kovalsky and Kommersant-Holdingexecutive director Andrey Galiev. The reason for the dismissals, according to Usmanov, was the magazine\u2019s latest issue which talked about alleged\u00a0mass fraud in parliamentary elections in Russia, particularly expatriates voting in London and witnessing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[7919,2814,7719,13048],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}