Violations of journalists'
rights in Chechnya -
April 17th 2003 ·
Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations
March 2003
Monitoring press violations and conflicts connected to media coverage of events
in the Chechen Republic in March 2003
Compiled by the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations. Translated by Prague
Watchdog.
1. Media problems during the referendum campaign
March 3
The news agency Chechenpress, which favors the Chechen separatists, released
Aslan Maskhadov´s address to the Chechen nation. In his statement Maskhadov
said: "By initiating a referendum on the new constitution under conditions of
war, the Russian leadership aims to undermine the government of the Chechen
Republic of Ichkeria." He called on citizens of the republic to "become
united in this difficult period and make it clear that there is no alternative
to an independent state for Chechens. "
March 4
The Chechen Minister of the Press, Broadcasting and Communication, Bislan Gantamirov,
said that during the preparation for the referendum, the republic s media printed
195,000 copies of the draft constitution and 175,000 of the draft laws on the
presidential and parliamentary elections. According to him, all the newspapers
devoted their space to the referendum. Gantamirov added that as far as the electronic
media is concerned, two channels of the State Televion and Radio Broadcasting
Company GTRK, which cover 85% of Chechnya, provide the broadcasts.
Gantamirov also criticized several media, namely the Marsho newspaper and the
Grozny Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Gantamirov admonished Said
Khozhaliyev, the editor-in-chief of Marsho, which has since the beginning of
the year published 49 issues containing agitation material for the referendum.
In Gantamirov s opinion, a newspaper should not resemble an agitation
noticeboard. As regards the Grozny television company, Gantamirov expressed
wish to see “more positive news being broadcast . At the same time, Gantamirov
praised “Stolitsa-plyus and “Molodyozhnaya smena for good work.
March 11
The booklet "Chechnya: Questions and Answers," put together by the official
news agency RIA Novosti, was introduced in Moscow. According to the President
s aide on Chechnya Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the book provides nswers
to questions that appeared in the media about the Chechen issue. The booklet
was published in English, German, French, Spanish and Arabic. It includes information
on the first and second election campaigns, as well as the present government
officials in theChechen Republic, reconstruction work and reconstruction of
law enforcement agencies.
Some Russian media noted that many answers given in the booklet seem either
to be controversial or inaccurate. Nor does it include a single photograph of
destroyed buildings in Grozny, which prompted Yastrzhembsky to remark: "You
re saying that there are no such photographs. And I m saying that you are
lying!"
March 11
The Office of the Russian Presidential Envoy to the Southern Federal Region
Viktor Kazantsev established a Coordinating Information Committee. One of its
main tasks will be to "assist in disseminating objective information on the
process in Chechnya as well as beyond its borders." The envoy pointed to the
lack of information regarding the necessity for a plebiscite.
March 13
Edi Isayev, director of the press service of the Office of the Plenipotentiary
of the Chechen Republic to Russian President, said that the Chechen resistance
fighters' campaign against the referendum is intensifying. According to him,
leaflets are being disseminated in Chechen towns and villages on behalf of Ichkeria´s
government calling on people to boycott the referendum and organize mass
protest rallies. The same day the regional task force headquarters which manages
thecounter-terrorist actions in the Northern Caucasus also said that "Chechen
resistance fighters were campaigning to get enough people to Grozny on March
21 to protest the referendum."
March 13
The head of the initiative group on the referendum, Khasan Taymaskhanov,
said that the group will place more than 10,000 different posters in Chechen
towns and villages. And the booklets on the draft Constitution and draft laws
on the presidential and parliamentary election that had been circulated have
just about ended. According to Taymaskhanov, more than one million copies of
the booklets had been distributed.
March 14
Nikolay Payzulayev, press secretary of the Chechen regional branch of the Yedinaya
Rosiya party, said that more than 30 campaign billboards calling on people to
take part in the polls were destroyed in Grozny s Leninsky district. He added,
however, that new billboards would soon replace the demolished ones.
March 14
Visami Tutuyev, CEO of the Kavkaz-Centr news agency, which reflects the position
of most radical Chechen separatists, has accused the Russian Internet publication
Grani.Ru of lying. The news agency had earlier published the ruling of the Supreme
Shariat Court of the Chechen Republic which stated that all organizers of the
referendum would be sentenced to death. Tutuyev was outraged by the Grani.Ru
journalist Ilya Milshteyn, who assessed the decision as a sentence for
"everyone who campaigned for the referendum as well as all those who took part
in it."
March 16
Chechen TV carried President Vladimir Putin s address to Chechen citizens on
the upcoming referendum. The television station decided to air the address again
on March 17. However, everyone at the Russian military base in Khankala who
wanted to watch the rerun met with an unsolvable problem-----all TV screens
suddenly went blank and nothing could be seen for twenty minutes.
March 16
According to Chechen separatist sources, Aslan Maskhadov appeared on Chechen
TV saying "the so-called referendum is an illegal action carried out by
the occupiers and will have no legal binding consequences on the Chechen state."
His broadcast was seen in several villages of the Achkhoi-Martanovsky and Urus-Martanovsky
districts.
March 17
The military command in Chechnya has once again reported that "rebels have mobilized
their propaganda activities and plan to organize rallies against the referendum."
March 18
Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Putin s Aide on Chechnya, said that 140 foreign
journalists have been accredited to observe and explain the course of the referendum.
According to him, no entry limits or quota were imposed for Chechnya.
March 21
A press conference with Chechen journalist Kheda Saratova, and Anna Politkovska
of the Novaya Gazeta, along with a specialist in international tribunals, Vladimir
Oyvin, was held in Moscow entitled "Chechnya: Referendum, Tribunal and Feasibility."
March 23
The constitutional referendum was held in Chechnya and according to official
reports, more than 100 foreign journalists observed it. Heads of Chechen NGOs
reported that alongside one of the polling booths, journalists from the TVS
television company asked human rights activist Ruslan Badalov to answer a few
of their questions. But within seconds, Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Khizir
Tepsayev approached and demanded that they stop filming. He made it clear
that they had no right to film anything next to the polling booth and demanded
to see their accreditation; but the journalists´ objections, as well as
Badalov´s, infuriated him. Meanwhile, Nalgiyev from the Ingush Prosecutor
s Office came along and threatened to arrest Badalov and the journalists.
Later that day, members
of the Federal Security Service arrested a journalist standing next to one of
the polling booths who claimed to work for a Moscow newspaper. When searched,
explosives were found in his bag.
March 26
A press conference with Salambek Maigov, Aslan Maskhadov´s envoy to Russia,
was held in Moscow where he stated, "the referendum cannot be considered to
be legal." He explained that the situation in Chechnya was exceptional----there
is limited mobility, limited right to receive and disseminate information (the
accreditation system significantly limits the media), and rallies, street marches
and demonstrations are banned. According to Maigov, practically all media
within the republic workunder harsh censorship; nor can any opinions that differ
from official views of the Chechen administration be published. He pointed
out that adversaries of the referendum and the constitution had no way of launching
a legal campaign and explaining their position to the people.
March 28
In Vienna, the International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights published a
document devoted to the referendum in Chechnya, which was based on information
from local human rights groups. They concluded that the process of drafting
the constitution and organizing a referendum represented almost the worst case
of unlawful activities and manipulating a nation s free expression in the polls
in the post-Soviet period. The document quotes a report worked out by the Memorial
human rights group, according to which "necessary conditions were not created
for a free and fair referendum which would guarantee security and allow
the public to assess the draft constitution."
March 31
A few advance copies of Vesti Respubliky were published in Chechnya, which included
the text of the Constitution and laws on the presidential and parliamentary
elections adopted in the March 23 referendum. The Chechen Deputy Mininster of
the Press, Broadcasting and Communication, Liza Takasheva, said that only
about 10 copies of the paper were initially printed; the delay was due to an
error that was made in the advance issues----one of the articles of the constitution
had been incorrectly numbered. On April 1, the republic s newspapers doubled
the number of copies they usually print, which also carried the same text
as Vesti Respubliky.
2. Media rights violations
March 6
After a three-week hiatus, local newspapers again appeared in Chechnya. The
state printing company, Nadterechnaya tipografiya, stopped printing because
they had no funds to purchase basic materials. Director Vakha Idrisov announced
that the needed sums have now been transferred into the company´s account
and they were again able to buy supplies.
March 10
The University at Reading in Great Britain hosted a meeting of local students
and various dignitaries to discuss “Chechnya, Russia, and International Terrorism.
Among the people attending were: Akhmed Zakayev, Aslan Maskhadov´s representative,
former Russian ParliamentarySpeaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, executive director of
the U.S. “American Committee for Peace in Chechnya Glen Howard, Russian
human rights activist MP Yuly Rybakov, former Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky,
English actress and activist Vanessa Redgrave, former FSB officer Alexander
Litvinenko, Chechen lawyer Abdullah Khamzayev, and Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
March 11
The Russian daily Moskovskie Novosti published an interview with the well-known
German journalist Guenter Walraff, whom Russian authorities had denied entry
into Chechyna; but in March permission was granted. alraff stated that in order
to enter Chechnya, the Russian Embassy demanded to see an official invitation
from Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the Moscow-backed administration of the Chechen
Republic.
March 11
The University in Grozny opened an Internet Centre that can daily handle
1,000 people. Students can use the Internet for free. According to the centre
s organizers, ree access to information is “the best defense against radical
ideas.
March 11
Head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov denied reports
that his relatives were running a personal prison he had set up in his home
village. Kadyrov stated these were baseless rumors. “My younger son is a commander
of a special squad that fights bandits.
March 12
The military headquarters in Chechnya announced that federal forces are searching
for a mobile TV transmission unit used by guerillas to broadcast a program called
Novosti Ichkerii. They stated that “leaders of the group continue these operations
in order to gain information and psychological control over the local population.
March 14
A book of Chechen and Ingushetian folk tales was launched in Moscow in the presence
of Russian President s aide on Chechnya Sergei Yastrzhembsky, and 30,000 copies
were issued.
March 14
Aslanbek Dadayev, correspondent for the Chechen department of the Radio Free
Europe / Radio Liberty, and Ali Astamirov of Agence France Press in North
Caucasus, along with Reuters Adlan Khasanov were stopped by police in
the Sleptsovskaya village in Ingushetia and forbidden to photograph refugees
living in the camp. The journalists were told that in order to do this, they
needed special permission from the Immigration Office.
March 14
After nearly a year, the independent socio-political newspaper Groznenskyi Rabochi
appeared on the newstands again. The editor-in-chief is Musa Muradov.
March 14-15
A training-seminar for Chechen journalists, “Journalism in Regions of Conflict
took place in Nazran. It was organized by a London- based Institute for War
and Peace Reporting. About twenty newspaper, radio and TV correspondents
sat through lectures dealing with the basics of international journalism.
March 15
The Russian Museum of Photography in Nizhny Novgorod opened a photographic exhibit
entitled “Chechnya: Our wounds, Our angst. It included the work of war photographers
and frontline correspondents on the “counter-terrorist campaign in Northern
Caucasus. According to the Russian Defense Ministry s news agency “Voyeninform,
these photographs “show the war as it actually is, omitting nothing. Yet
the focus is very much on the “image of a Russian soldier.
March 15 – 18
Imran Ezhiyev, head of the regional branch of the Society of Russian-Chechen
Friendship, was abducted in Chechnya on the road between Shali and Serzhen-Yurt.
Several armed, masked men stopped the car in which he was travelling and demanded
to see his documents. Then at gunpoint, they transferred Ezhiyev into a car
and drove off. Ezhiyev had been gathering information on the situation
in Chechnya, and reporting daily to the Society s office in Nizhny Novgorod.
Ezhiyev was released on March 18, saying his captors set him free near Khankala,
Russia s main military base in Chechnya. The rights defender had no idea whose
hostage he was or where he had been held captive.
March 19
In Moscow, Mikhail Seslavinski, Russian Deputy Minister of the Press, announced
that about 70 percent of Chechens have access to TV broadcasts. He said all
programs could be seen on the Rossiya channel and some on the Kultura channel.
And there are also daily broadcasts by Chechen State Radio and Television. According
to Seslavinski, the first tender for radio and television frequencies in Grozny
will take place in May.
March 21
Many Grozny citizens protested the recent activity of Russian television
journalists that had taken place in the center of the city. Apparently several
Russian journalists filmed a large crowd of people waiting at a bus stop that
was then presented on a Russian TV news channel as a mass protest against
the impending war in Iraq. The people of Grozny complained about the “outrageous
misrepresentation on the part of corrupt journalists.
March 24
The Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta published an article by a Moscow journalist
who returned from Grozny, "In Russia, TV news is favourable ... in Chechnya."
The article states that the Chechen State Television and Radio Company "broadcasts
no bad news, only upbeat items. Journalists themselves explain they are so fed
up with all the bad things in their lives that they want only good things and
lasting values to appear on TV screens. However, the expression on their
faces suggests
they had received strict orders from Moscow not to air anything that would compromise
Russians." Always accompanying the correspondent, camera operator and assistant,
are one or two men with sub-machine guns, the paper noted.
March 26
A large number of Russian politicians, public figures, and journalists signed
a “Let s Stop the Chechen War Together declaration. This document states
that the deaths of thousands of Russian soldiers and officers, tens of thousands
of civilians, and destruction of the entire country cannot be justified by either
the interests of the state or by threats of world terrorism. It also demanded
that the Russian government “stop barbaric raids, summary executions,
and all senseless means of punishment that only serve to recruit new partisans
for the separatist movement.
March 28
After nearly three years, the independent socio-political newspaper Golos Chechenskoi
Respubliki, once again appeared on the newsstands. The editor-in-chief
is Satsita Isayeva.
March 31
In Altai, work has begun on the “Memorial Book dedicated to the soldiers
who perished in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Compiled by Ilya Maksakov. Based on material from the Center for Journalism
in Extreme Situations, CJES expert on Chechnya and Ingushetia Tamerlan
Aliyev; news agencies Interfax, ITAR-TASS, RIA Novosti, Prima; newpapers: Kommersant,
Obshchaya Gazeta, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Novaya Gazeta;
radio stations: Echo Moskvy and Svoboda; and Internet publications Strana.ru,
Regiony.ru, Chechenpress, and Kavkazski Vestnik.
http://www.watchdog.cz