New curbs on Russian media
The Russian State Duma voted 339-1 today to tighten media rules on slander and libel. (more…)
Union confusion
Is Chechnya’s President Kadyrov welcome in the country’s journalists’ union or not, asks Anna Sevortian
On the 5 March Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya, was inducted into the Union of Journalists of Chechnya, which is part of the Russian Union of Journalists. How can a serving politician, who is not a journalist, become a member? This question was asked by the many posts and press reports that inundated the web. Several well-known journalists announced they would cancel their membership if the information proved to be true. It did.
Kadyrov was given membership for his service to journalism in the Chechen Republic and ‘securing optimal conditions for the independent operation of the press’. He got his certificate and union ID from his minister of external relations and press, Shamsail Saraliev.
How free is the Russian media?
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The future of the Russian media
On 4 March, to mark the publication of its latest issue, ‘How Free is the Russian Media?’, Index on Censorship hosted a discussion in London and Moscow on the future of the Russian media under President Medvedev. The discussion featured John Kampfner, Arkady Babchenko (author of One Soldier’s War in Chechnya), Maria Eismont (New Eurasia Foundation, Moscow), Alexander Verkhovsky (Sova Centre, Moscow), Natalia Rostova (Novaya Gazeta), Oleg Panfilov (Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations), Maria Yulikova (Carnegie Centre) and Sergei Bachinin (Vyatsky Nablyudatel’) and Anna Sevortian (Centre for Development of Democracy).
The event was supported by the Open Society Foundation and the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.