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Alert

Attack against the director of Media Most group's publishing house

(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Minister of the Interior Boris Gryzlov, RSF protested the attack against Dimitri Biryulov, director of Sem Dnei, the publishing house owned by the Media Most group. "Sem Dnei publishing house and its publications 'Segodnia' and 'Itogui' are being subjected to incessant pressure these last few weeks, while the Media Most group is being taken over by a state-owned company," stated Robert Ménard, RSF's secretary-general. "We call on you to take necessary measures to ensure that the perpetrators of this attack are identified."




According to information obtained by RSF, on 13 April 2001, a molotov cocktail was thrown at Biryulov's vehicle. He was not injured.

RSF recalls that at the beginning of April, Sem Dnei's management announced that they might decide to stop publishing the daily "Segodnia" as of 1 May 2001, due to pressure from their new majority shareholders. An influential political daily with a circulation of 55,000 copies in Russia's major cities, "Segodnia" has been particularly critical of the Russian government, under Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. The informational magazine "Itogui" might also be forced to leave the Media Most group in order to preserve its editorial freedom. The Gazprom company, Media Most group's principal creditor, is currently taking control of the press group and NTV, the only private television station that broadcasts throughout all the Russian Federation's territory.