RUSSIA: MEDIA NOT FREE, SAYS JOURNALIST
More than a decade after the introduction of democracy in Russia, the media is far from free, says journalist Grigory Pasko. Speaking in Toronto, Canada, at an event co-sponsored by Canadian Journalists For Free Expression (CJFE), PEN Canada and Amnesty International, the visiting journalist warns that Russia under President Vladimir Putin is slipping back to the repressive days when censorship was a hallmark of Communist rule in the Soviet Union.
“You cannot really say there is of freedom of the media in Russia today,” says Pasko. “There are very few newspapers that are independent of the authorities, and outside Moscow, they scarcely exist.” Pasko spent two years in solitary confinement after he blew the whistle on the Russian navy’s practice of dumping nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan. He was released on parole in January 2003, mainly because of international pressure. “I received 30,000 letters in jail,” he says.
“Changes to laws in the past few years have resulted in a rollback for press freedom and democracy in Russia. These include an anti-terrorism law which severely hinders freedom of expression, a law that removes the right to hold referenda and tax laws that give the state more powers to control how non-governmental organisations receive foreign funds,” says Pasko.
Pasko’s visit comes two days before US President George W. Bush arrives in Slovakia to meet with Putin. Earlier this week, Freedom House and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote to Bush urging him to be tougher with Russia on its press freedom record.
(From IFEX COMMUNIQUÉ VOL 14 NO 8 | 22 FEBRUARY 2005)
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