BULLETINS OF CENTER FOR JOURNALISM IN EXTREME SITUATIONS
DANGEROUS PROFESSION: WEEKLY
WEEKLY BULLETIN OF EVENTS IN MASS-MEDIA OF CIS COUNTRIESISSUE NO. 6 (315), FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2008
Author – Analyst Of Center For Journalism In Extreme Situations
Irada Guseinova (gusja@cjes.ru)
I. Attacks and Threats against Journalists
Georgia
Gela Mtivlishvili, a reporter with the newspaper Rezonansi and the newspaper Mteli Kvira, has received phone threats.
The journalist says an unknown man called him on his cell phone on February 3 and told him: “I will cut your head off, put it in a plastic bag and send it to your family. Stop working, or we will kill you. Man, do you know who we are? You know it’s not problem for us to kill you, don’t you?” The journalist also says that shortly before the call he saw three men who followed him when he left his office.
“I returned to the office for the purpose of self-defense. I did not call the police. I don’t think they will help me,” says the journalist.
Mtivlishvili’s colleagues link the threats to his recent interview with Giorgy Dalakishvili, a former official with the Special Operations Center of the Georgian Interior Ministry.
Georgia/Abkhazia
The authors of a television report on the Georgian residents of the Gal region who were prevented from voting in the January 5 presidential elections in Georgia by the Abkhaz authorities have been beaten by peacekeepers, David Bakradze, Georgian minister for conflict settlement, said on February 8.
“The peacekeepers have broken their camera and have physically insulted a journalist. The attack was caught on camera,” said Bakradze.
Alexander Diordiyev, aide to the commander of the Collective Peacekeeping Force in the Georgia-Abkhaz conflict area, has denied this information.
II. Detentions and Arrests of Journalists
Ukraine
Several journalists from Novy Kanal were detained in their apartments by police officers and taken to a police station in Kyiv in the early hours of February 7. Among the detainees were the channel’s administrators, a cameraman, a driver (his car has been impounded by the police), and also the channel’s editors Oleg Velichko and Volodymyr Pavlyuk.
The detained journalists said that “people in civilian clothing, who said they were policemen, rudely knocked on our doors in the middle of night in the course of several hours, breaking them, and demanded that we follow them to a police station for a questioning.” The people did not show any arrest or search warrants, said the journalists.
The journalists believe the police officers acted on their orders of officials from the local administration, which was unhappy about a report dealing with the local police run by Novy Kanal on February 6.
Vadim Kolesnichenko, a member of the parliamentary committee on justice issues, believes the detention of the Novy Kanal journalists is illegal. “Any visit paid to a citizen’s apartment by a law enforcement officer at night without a warrant is illegal. A detention for a period longer than three hours, when no objective grounds are given, is illegal,” he said.
The journalists were released after being questioned at the police station.
***
Journalist Vasily Boiko was detained in the Kyiv Dneprovsky District Court on February 8. There is information that he was detained for refusing to show his press ID.
III. Lawsuits against Journalists
Azerbaijan
Mais Musayev, press secretary for the young people’s movement Ireli, has filed a lawsuit against the newspaper Yeni Chag and its editor-in-chief Agil Alekser, says a February 5 news report.
The lawsuit was filed over an article run by the paper, which dealt with Ireli.
Musayev is seeking a refutation and 60,000 manates in moral damages.
The first hearing of the case is scheduled for February 14.
Belarus
The newspaper Gazeta Slonimskaya last week received a warning from the Information Ministry, which accused it of breaching Article 30 of the law On the Press and Other Mass Media by exceeding the amount of newspaper space that can be given to advertisements (which is limited to 30%).
The paper’s editor-in-chief Viktor Volodoshchuk finds the warning to be ungrounded and says the paper never breached the law. He suspects that the Information Ministry counted as advertisements the information on the conditions of subscription for next year and an announcement about the paper’s website.
Ukraine
The Kyiv Court of Appeals on February 5 found Channel 5 television guilty of disseminating false and libelous information on Viktor Yanukovych, Boris Kolesnikov, Anatoly Kinakh, and Sergei Kivalov during the April 2007 parliamentary crisis in Ukraine, the press service for parliamentarian Sergei Kivalov told LIGABIznesInform.
IV. Other Forms of Pressure on Journalists. Conflicts with the Authorities and Political Organizations
Belarus
Lyavon Borshchevsky, chairman of the party Belarussian National Front, has demanded that the Belarussian Military Newspaper (an official publication of the Belarussian Defense Ministry) publish a refutation of the information contained in an article run by the paper on January 30, 2008, says a February 4 news report.
Borshchevsky believes information stated in the article is false and harms the reputation of the Belarussian National Front. He has sent to the paper a text of a refutation, which he wants the paper to publish within a week’s time. He says a lawsuit will be filed if the reputation is not published.
Moldova
Constantine Rotaru has resigned from his post of a member of the Coordination Council on Television and radio, accusing the Council of political bias. In addition, Rotaru said he disagreed with the way the Council distributed frequencies, in particular, to radio stations.
Ukraine
Deputies of the Gorodnyansky District Council in the Chernigov region have prohibited Pyotr Antonenko, a reporter with the Chernigov newspaper Sivershchina from being present at the council’s session. Before the session, the Council’s Chairman Oleksandr Verkhusha put to vote the question as to whether Antonenko had the right to be present in the meeting room. The majority of the deputies said they wanted the journalist to leave, accusing the journalist of distorting facts and providing a biased coverage of events in his materials, the journalist’s colleagues told PRIMA-News on February 1.
V. Restrictions of Access to Information
Belarus
The Gantsevichi District Council of Deputies and Gantsevichi District Executive Committee have denied accreditation to three journalists from the newspaper Gantsavitsky Chas. The journalists had applied for accreditation on January 17.
“During the discussion of this issue and in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 13, 2995 On the Press and Other Mass Media, it has been decided to deny the paper’s representatives proposed by you accreditation with the district executive committee,” Vladimir Stolyar, the head of the district executive administration, said in a letter dated February 1.
The letter from the district council of deputies (dated January 31) does not contain any reasons for the denial either.
Gantsavitsky Chas editor-in-chief Alexei Bely said the journalists are not surprised by this decision. He said it will be contested with higher authorities.
Uzbekistan
The Uzbek-language analytical Internet publication Newsuz.Com has been blocked in Uzbekistan, Voice of Liberty reported on February 4.
Newsuz.Com editor-in-chief Aziz Nosirov says the publication’s staff are having great difficulty working with the site and are having to look for new options every time they update the site.
Nosirov believes the website has been blocked by the country’s law enforcement structures.
“After a series of critical publications on human rights issues, gas supply issues, and price growth, and also analytical publications on the recent elections, we began receiving letters with threats and demands to follow information posted on government sites. We did not do that and, as a result, out site was blocked,” said Nosirov.
Ukraine
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokeswoman Raisa Bogatyryova invited journalists for a briefing on February 4. However, when journalists arrived, she only read to them information from paper and refused to answer questions from the press, LIGABiznesInform has reported.
Commentary Prepared by CJES Lawyer Viktoriya Blonskaya (V. Belarus)
Under Article 36 of the Belarussian law On the Press, demands for refutations can be made to the editorial boards of media outlets by citizens, their legal representatives, organizations or institutions, enterprises, and state bodies if the published information is false or denigrates their honor and dignity. If the editorial board has no proof of the fact that the disseminated information is true, it is to publish a refutation, make a correction, or offer a clarification.
The refutation procedure is described in Article 37 of the law On the Press, which also states that “In case a refutation (publication of a response) has been refused, or a refutation does not correspond to the requirements of part one of the present Article, the citizens, organizations or institutions, enterprises, state bodies shall have the right to protect their honor and dignity, or business reputation in the legal form.”
Under Article 38 of the law, “The editorial board shall be entitled to refuse refutation or publication of a response if this requirement or the text of the refutation provided:
• is an abuse of freedom of popular information in the sense of the Article 5 of the present Law;
• contradicts to the court judgement that has come into its legal force;
• is anonymous.
• A refutation may be refused if:
• the data is refuted that has already been refuted in this very mass medium;
• the data is refuted for dissemination of which the mass medium bears no responsibility in accordance with the Article 47 of the present Law.”
Media outlets cannot be held liable for disseminating information taken from official reports, information obtained from information agencies, responses to information requests or materials published by press services of state bodies, organizations, establishments, etc., information that is a word-for-word reproduction of fragments of speeches given by parliamentarians at sessions, congresses, conferences, plenums, and also official speeches by public officials, as well as information contained in live broadcasts or texts that are not subject to editing.
Type Of Event
Number Of Cases
Attacks On Journalists
1 – Georgia
1 – Georgia/Abkhasia
Fatalities Among Journalists
Detentions And Arrests Of Journalists
2 – Ukraine
Lawsuits Against Journalists
1 – Azerbaijan
1 – Belarus
1 – Ukraine
Other Kinds Of Pressure On Editorial Boards And Journalists
