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Alert

WPFC denounces arrest of media group owner

(WPFC/IFEX) - The following is a WPFC statement of protest:


World Press Freedom Committee Leaders Denounce Gusinsky Arrest

We are dismayed at the June 13 arrest in Moscow of Vladimir A. Gusinsky, owner of Media-Most, which includes Russia's only national independent news media, and urge his immediate release.

The detention of Mr. Gusinsky, on alleged charges of embezzlement, is the latest in a series of alarming moves by the government - including the ransacking of Mr. Gusinsky's office - to suppress press freedom in Russia. Since December, when President Vladimir Putin assumed leadership in the country, the government has made repeated assaults on independent journalists and media, in violation of the Russian Constitution's guarantees of press freedom as well as of international agreements to which Russia is a signatory. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, states that:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

The ongoing restriction of press freedom in Russia indicates that the country's leaders do not recognize the fundamental importance of independent news reporting to a fully functioning and economically vigorous democracy. For Russia as a society making the challenging transition from communism to democracy, a free press is absolutely vital to the goals set forth by the new leadership.

Among other actions against the press in recent months, government representatives have:
- Used the licensing process for electronic mass media outlets as an instrument for the political selection of television and radio broadcasters;
- Introduced censorship in the newspaper Izvestia in the Saratov region;
- Detained, harassed and threatened independent media expressing critical views;
- Forbidden access to the conflict in Chechnya, and punished media and journalists who tried to report on the conflict.

In regions outside Moscow, violations of freedom of expression and of the rights of journalists are widespread. The repeal of tax and other privileges for the mass media - adopted by the State Duma in a first reading on the initiative of the government of the Russian Federation - deals a crippling blow to the economic foundation of freedom of expression and the independence of the mass media.

It is clear that the economic dislocation caused by the transition from communism has been such that the major companies in Russia have been virtually forced to operate outside the law in order to survive and prosper. If the Russian government is serious in its stated determination to uproot corruption, it must investigate virtually all of the country's major companies and it must adopt reasonable legal and tax structures that apply to all.

Singling out a particular company, one which happens to own the major independent news media in Moscow, inevitably creates the impression that the government is not even handed and that it practices a policy of rewarding its friends and punishing critics.

The citizens and leaders of advanced democracies, concerned about the longrange stability of Russia, nevertheless cannot long ignore signs of a return to authoritarianism.

The free press in those democracies is bound to report in as much depth and detail as possible about any such regression. No leader of a genuine democracy will be able to withstand for long the inevitable public demands to shun a government seen to be acting against press freedom and other basic human rights.

It is incumbent on the United States government, including members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, to denounce the illegal actions of the Russian government against the independent news media, and to demand the immediate release of Mr. Gusinsky.

In addition, all future conversations with Russia regarding diplomatic, economic and military issues should include emphasis on the critical importance of a free press in Russia.

James H. Ottaway
Chairman

Marilyn J. Greene
Executive Director

Ronald Koven
European Representative