Media-Most Sues FSB, ORT, and Dorenko
Last Wednesday, the Russian newspaper Obshchaya gazeta brought out a special issue, with a press run of 500,000, fully devoted to the media situation in Russia. The issue was motivated by the recent strong-arm action against Media-Most Holding, with 57 journalists from various media contributing their materials after the appeal by the Russian Union of Journalists. As the special issue’s desk editor Vitaly Yaroshevsky told Interfax, “In this issue, we defend the law and the right to do our professional duty, the right to give our people an unbiased, detailed, and accurate picture of what is going on in this country.”
As The Day has already reported, Mikhail Gorbachev has agreed to head the NTV channel’s Public Board. He writes in his letter to Media-Most, “The activity of the non-governmental mass media, free of bureaucratic arbitrary rule, is one of the indispensable and essential guarantees of democracy. I believe NTV also stands a good chance to strengthen its authority as a highly professional international television company. I will be in direct contact in the immediate future with some of Russia’s and the world’s prominent public figures about the formation of the NTV Television Public Board.”
Meanwhile, Media-Most has already filed three lawsuits, one against the Federal Security Service (FSB) and two against the ORT and TV-6 television channels, on the protection of honor and dignity. Echo of Moscow Radio reports that another two suits against ORT and VGTRK channels are in the works concerning the spots these channels showed the weekend before last.
The company’s complaints about the security service come down to two things: gross violations committed by operatives during the search, and libel attributed to Aleksandr Zdanovich, chief of FSB assistance programs. Pavel Astakhov, Media-Most lawyer, believes that all that the security forces portrayed on state-run television has nothing to do with the materials really confiscated during searches.
As to the documents Sergei Dorenko showed in his ORT Saturday program, one can say for sure, Mr. Astakhov thinks, that they had been published in the Kogot (Claw) Internet site and repeatedly reprinted by various media as long ago as February 1999. But at that time nobody raised the question of whether their origin and publication on the site were lawful.
Last Wednesday evening, a public rally, organized by the Russian Union of Journalists, was held on Moscow’s Pushkin Square in defense of the freedom of expression.
PS. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada conducted on May 17 its first hearing of amendments to the law On the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Board of Ukraine introduced by Pavlo Movchan (UNR faction). The amendments suggest increasing the number of National Board members from 8 to 10 and forming two chambers each comprising 5 National Board members. One chamber would deal with television and radio licensing and the other would analyze the quality of programs. Oleksandr Zinchenko, chair of the Committee on the Freedom of Expression and Information, noted that the formation of two National Board channels would create “two centers to manage the information space from,” as well as increase budgetary expenses for the maintenance of this structure.
