17 Feb 2012 | Russia
Authorities in the Siberian city of Barnaul have refused to sanction a dolls’ protest rally, claiming toys are not equal to people and so cannot participate.
Rights activists had planned to place 100 Kinder surprise toys, 100 Lego figures, 20 soldiers, 15 soft toys and 10 toy cars on the snow in Barnaul’s central square with tiny placards to protest against corruption, violations of election law and article 31 of the constitution which guarantees the freedom of assembly.
Organisers from the local GOLOS election watchdog department and Voters’ League rights activists called the authorities’ refusal absurd.
The activists have pledged to hold the protest action on 18 February anyway, but instead of a rally they plan to make it a series of single pickets, which, according to Russian law, do not have to be sanctioned.
Similar toy protests were held in Barnaul in January without any authorities’ sanctions and became successful among the public and foreign media [photos available here]. Their purpose was simple: authorities refused to sanction a traditional rally against allegedly fraudulent elections, and activists came up with a creative idea of toys protesting instead. Toys held placards saying “United Russia is united against Russia”, “I’m for clean elections”, “Send bears (the symbol of the Putin-led United Russia party – Index) to the North”. Barnaul Prosecutor’s office considered the toy rally “a public event which requires authorities’ sanction”.
Meanwhile protest activists in Moscow are trying to get human protest actions sanctioned. They planned a follow up to this month’s rallies against unfair elections on 26 February in the celebation Russian traditional holiday — Pancake week — with a slogan “Farewell to political winter”. It implies the burning of the winter effigy which is most likely to feature Putin’s face. Organisers are receiving controversial statements from Moscow city administration. They are going to hold the action anyway; if no sanction is given, it will take the form of a flashmob.
After protesters see off the political winter, they plan to gather in Moscow’s Garden Ring Road and create an unbroken circle around the city centre holding hands. Protesters estimate this will require not less than 34,000 people. The purpose of the “Big White Circle”, as protesters call it, is to remind the authorities none of their demands were fulfilled.
The only people who do not have any problems organising rallies now are Putin’s supporters. Their rally is to be held on 23 February, and it is expected that Putin himself will attend. The last rally in his support was held the same day tens of thousands people protested against his run in presidential campaign, and was marked with scandalous reports of how people were threatened or paid for supporting him.
17 Feb 2012 | Sub-Saharan Africa
In places like Zimbabwe the need for “outsider” critique is essential: solipsistic regimes create complex narratives about betrayal and patriotism; no more so than in Zimbabwe. Whether material originates from “inside” or “outside” the regime can be important in establishing its veracity.
A very small minority of Zimbabweans (about 3 per cent) live in isolated elite comfort, with their cable televisions buffering the reality of Zimbabwe’s weak local media situation, watching whatever they feel like, from Hollywood films to BBC to Al Jazeera and DSTV, whilst the rest of the citizens either see it with their own eyes, or rely on the local media.
And herein lies the problem: no critical, debating, investigative or contextual news gets reported.
The recent news that the government plans to invoke a peculiar mangle of laws to prevent “foreign” papers (including the Sunday Times and various South African papers) distributing unless they have local offices, means that Zimbabweans access to information is even more limited than it was previously.
For some wealthier Zimbabweans, this move is not necessarily being greeted with alarm. Linda, a Zimbabwean journalist in who works across the region, says “Yes, I get foreign media, I like it. But it’s a pose, getting your information from abroad. Local media is fine. We get constant Russian television, that’s sufficient.” Others, however are astonished, and see this bill as an extension of the theme that Zimbabwe’s media really only exists to bolster and defend the ailing, and increasingly vulnerable president Mugabe.
Zimbabwe is a peculiar beast: at one level it is now several steps away from the hyper-inflation days of 2008. But, it is still floundering in economic and social chaos. Since the introduction of the Botswana pula, the South African rand and the US dollar, trade is improving, but this is not reflected in the health of the country’s media.
In the absence of spare cash to buy papers, the shoddy state of local newspapers, and the restrictions imposed on media operations, people get inventive. Kubutana stays afloat using a variety of techniques which employ both technology and people’s ability to talk to each other face to face. They’ve changed the way milions of people vote in Zimbabwe. They provide a symbolic and actual hub for information. Still it’s the life on the street that is important, the constant mingling, chatting and gossiping that keeps the public sphere alive, with a few exceptions.
In this context, the Zimbabwean market traders and street vendors are essential. They know stuff. They see it with their own eyes and they constantly have a stream of people to interact with: at a micro level they are intellectual hubs. When the licencing system of street fruit vendors forced Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi to burn himself to death, Zimbabwe’s street traders clocked it.
In January 2012 in Harare, several police officers were left injured during clashes involving removing street vendors from central areas. The Zimbabwean reported that two vendors had to be hospitalised after being tortured by police, and two reporters from the local newspaper the Daily News were detained by police. But they didn’t give reasons, context or views of those involved. Although the protests are a long way from sparking a revolution in Zimbabwe, the determination of vendors to fight for their livelihoods is a sign that people will speak out.
Street vendors, like many in Africa, are living a hand to mouth existence, often moonlighting several jobs, and the licencing system is a well-known ploy of governments here in the region to “clean up” their unsightly presence- particularly when there’s foreign dignitaries visiting, or an African Union delegation. Even streets get renamed. It’s all about looking good, yet paradoxically street vendors are essential for the large majority’s needs. They only exist because of the numerous trade agreements the Zimbabwean government has signed with the Chinese to ensure there’s a steady flow of buckets, washing up bowls, plates and radios, which of course local people need, want, and it’s all they can afford. But still Zimbabweans are ambivalent and disparaging “We want real money, not zhing-zhong,” taxi driver Jourbet Buthelezi, referring to the pejorative term Zimbabweans use for sub-standard Chinese goods.
16 Feb 2012 | Russia
Ekho Moskvy is Russia’s most popular talk radio station, with 900,000 listeners daily. Since its creation in 1990 it has delivered information as an independent media which, unlike Russian TV, isn’t subject to censorship. This remained the case even after state-owned Gazprom’s holding — Gazprom-Media — bought out 66 per cent shares of Ekho Moskvy in the early 2000s and later, when Gazprom-Media fell under control of big bank “Russia” board of directors chair Yuri Kovalchuk, considered a close friend of Vladimir Putin.
But this week many observers have expressed concerns over Ekho’s ability to continue to remain independent, after Gazprom-Media demanded pre-term resignation and re-election of the station’s board of directors.
Two independent directors — Evgeny Yasin, research director of National Research University Higher School of Economics, and Alexander Makovsky, deputy head of Public Law Research Centre Council – have been forced to step down from their positions on the board, and the station’s editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov and his deputy Vladimir Varfolomeev — two of three Echo’s representatives in the board — have stepped down voluntarily.
Gazprom Media used to appoint four of nine board of directors members, three were from the station, whilst the other two were independent. Now Gazprom Media will appoint five members, and Ekho Moskvy will only have two representatives, which, according to Venediktov, will “make it easier for Gazprom Media to replace the editor in chief”. The two new independent directors recommended by Gazprom Media are both close to president Dmitry Medvedev.
Ekho Moskvy journalists own 34 per cent of the station’s share. For 10 years they have struggled to buy out the other shares from Gazprom Media, but they have been unsuccessful. Staff have expressed concerns over the demands from Gazprom Media.
In an official statement, the journalists explained that they understood the need to respond to officials who are critics of the station, but added that the hasty advancement of the board of directors meeting needed to be explained.
Ekho Moskvy has been criticised by Putin for its in-depth coverage of events including the Moscow theatre and Beslan school hostage crises and the 2008 South Ossetia war. Last month Putin said the station’s journalists “poured diarrhoea” on him “day and night”.
Alexey Venediktov and Gazprom Media representatives claim the resignations from the board of directors will not affect Ekho Moskvy editorial policy and won’t lead to Venediktov’s removal. They explained he will keep his post for two more years and can then be re-elected in accordance with the station’s charter.
The new Echo representative on the board, the station’s directorYuri Fedutinov said the journalists have never faced any pressure from Gazprom Media.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied allegations of Putin involvement in the change, saying the pre-term board of directors resignation relates to “Gazprom Media corporate agenda”.
But Evgeny Yasin and Alexander Makovsky both say Gazprom Media’s move is to “influence editorial’s policy”.
Yasin told journalists: “This is done to establish government control over independent media to avoid any problems the authorities might have.”
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has called Gazprom Media’s demand “a slap in the face of public opinion”.
In an interview for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Russian service, he added: “To act that way with an independent, democratic radio station, which is loved and appreciated and to which people listen and [whose] material they read on the Internet is such ignorance.”
On his blog, Yabloko opposition party founder and unregistered presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky called the incident “direct pressure on media”, which may indicate the government’s policy on free media after presidential elections. But the more pressure the authorities apply, the more obvious the shortage of freedom will be, he added, stating that repressions won’t stop the protest movement which arose after allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections in Russia.
Another two incidents marked the scandal over Gazprom Media and Ekho Moskvy. On 15 February, the day after the scandal began, the Prosecutor’s office in Presnensky’s Moscow district called Alexey Venediktov. Prosecutors referred to an appeal which was filed by a citizen who claimed that the Ekho Moskvy’s charter didn’t correspond to Russia’s Labour Code. The applicant turned out to be from Yabloko party, he expressed concern over Echo’s journalists being forbidden to enter political parties. Yabloko’s superior members promised to exclude the complainant from the party and called his complaint “a provocation”.
In another incident, Ekho Moskvy journalist Alexander Pluschev’s had his blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts hacked. The journalist considers this a response to his post about pro-Putin youth movement “Nashi” where he described how they insulted him and allegedly damaged his car.
14 Feb 2012 | Russia
Human rights advocate and Presidential council for Human Rights expert Vladimir Osechkin has reported freedom of expression violations in penal colony №7 in Tver. Inmates and their relatives appealed to Oscechkin saying they had been seriously injured by the staff, he told Index on Censorship.
According to Osechkin, Pavel Kaitsukov was released on 23 January after four years in the colony for use and storage of drugs, and immediately went to hospital where he was diagnosed hard brain concussion. This, he said, was the consequence of the colony’s staff’s response to his attempt to complain about harsh treatment, including numerous insults and “groundlessly” locking him up in penal isolations wards.
He adds that on 19 January the staff commanded inmates should leave the cells and run through corridors with about 20 staff members who beat the inmates to Rammstein’s song “Murder”. Kaitsukov told Osechkin he asked for the colony’s head and a local prosecutor, but was beaten harder instead, lost his front teeth and was concussed.
After Kaitsukov’s term ended on 23 January he came to Moscow and filed a number of complaints to the General Prosecutor’s office from himself and other inmates — their written complaints had not been sent out from the colony, but had been allegedly torn or burnt, he says, noting that inmates were beaten for complaining.
Pavel Kaitsukov’s allegations were later confirmed by two other inmates, Ibragim Sardalov and Ruslan Artskhanov. They are still serving their terms –— for larceny and robbery with violence respectively — and appealed to Osechkin through their relatives. The pair have claimed they were repeatedly beaten for their Chechen nationality. Sardalov is to be operated on because slivers got into his injured leg after one of the beatings and caused infection. Artskhanov has got cancer. Both of them have filed complaints to prosecutors.
The response from Tver colony superiors is yet to be heard by the public. Vladimir Osechkin says the three victims have reported psychological pressure after speaking out, including the released Kaitsukov, who said he had been receiving phone calls from his former cellmates who “asked him to take back complaints and stop the scandal about the colony from flaming up”. Osechkin says those inmates were forced to call him because they had been under pressure themselves.
“Inmates are deprived of their right to express concerns about administration’s illegal actions, by threats of physical violence and of being sent away to North Russian colonies where their relatives can’t visit them”, Osechkin explains.
“This is legacy of the Gulag: inmates are supposed to work in colonies. But in Tver’s colony they are forced to work for miserable fees (up to 30 roubles — 0.6355 GBP — a month), like slaves. They are put in penal isolations wards if they refuse, and if they dare to file complaints to prosecutors, they are beaten and their complaints are torn”, he continues.
The investigation into Tver colony №7 human rights abuse is yet to be launched, although Tver prosecutors and a local non-governmental supervisory committee has already started interviewing inmates. Russia’s Public Chamber and Presidential Council for Human Rights members have expressed concerns about the reported incidents and promised to see to the situation.
