The cover of Forbes Russia appeared in print only in Russian Newsweek.
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No Protection Secured
// Forbes’ German publishers give in to the Moscow mayor’s wife
Axel Springer Russia, German publishers, announced withdrawing the December issue of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine. The printed issues have already been destroyed. The decision was made because of an article about Elena Baturina, head of the Inteko company and Moscow Mayor’s wife. The magazine’s publishers have decided to take the article away under the pressure of Inteko. Headquarters of Forbes in the United States demanded that Axel Springer “publish the new issue just the way it was originally printed.”
Russian Forbes’s December issue was to be out on November 30 with the cover story about Inteko’s head Elena Baturina on seven pages. The article says that Baturina has managed to restructure her business in the way that the retirement of her husband, Moscow’s Mayor Yury Luzhkov who is leaving office next December, will have little influence on her profits. The story also says that Baturina will no longer need high-placed relatives in the Moscow government to defend her interests in construction business since her company will be reaping profits from leasing its land and real estate. The article also compares Inteko’s growing profits from lease and with those from construction, thus proving the assumption.
Forbes’s front page had Baturina’s picture with the headline citing her “Protection Secured for Me”. The new issue was advertised in Monday’s issue of the Russian Newsweek, which is also published by Axel Springer Russia. Representatives of Inteko visited Alex Springer’s office after the advertisement appeared. A Kommersant source says that Inteko’s vice-president on foreign policy relations Ilya Parnyshkov also came to see Russian Forbes’ head Baroness Regina von Flemming. The man from Inteko has thought the cover page to be tactless and showed Baroness von Flemming the suit application with an urge to seize the magazine and ban publishing the article on-line as a preventive measure, sources of Kommersant report.
Axel Springer Russia released a statement on Thursday saying that it was the quotation “Protection Secured for Me” on the cover which made them withdraw the issue. “Principles of journalism ethics have been violated in Forbes’s cover story,” the statement says. “Baturina said in an interview with a Forbes correspondent: ‘I have protection secured for me and my rights as any investor does.’ A part of the phrase was taken out of context and put on the cover, misleading the readers because Baturina did not say this.”
Forbes Russia has been published in Russia since April 2004 by Axel Springer Russia which also publishes Russian Newsweek, Computer Bild, Wallpaper and OK! in Russia. Germany’s Axel Springer AG holds the controlling stake in the company. 326,800 people were reading Forbes Russia monthly as of October 2006, according to TNS Gallup Media. The magazine’s annual turnover is estimated at $5 million.
Maxim Kashulinsky, editor-in-chief of Russian Forbes, challenged this statement, telling in an interview with Kommersant. He says the editorial office agreed with Inteko’s arguments, and the quotation on the cover was changed for “Protection Secured for Me as an Investor”. What is more, Elena Baturina agreed with this quotation and did not say anything against it, Kashulinksy said. This headline was on the cover of the issue which has been printed and destroyed. “For me personally, it was important that the article would come out, not the quotation,” Kashulinsky said. “After I learnt that the publishing house had decided to withdraw the article, I offered my resignation. It is very sad that a Western publishing house treats its business in Russia in this way.”
The final decision to destroy the magazine’s December issues was taken at Axel Springer’s German headquarters, Kommersant sources report. Afterwards, all issues of the December Forbes were destroyed at the Almaz-Press printing-house. Sergey Vlasov, the printing-house’s head, declined to comment on the incident, referring to the confidential agreement with the publishers. Meanwhile, all employees at Forbes have signed an agreement not to divulge any information on the event Thursday.
Maxim Kashulinsky has informed the American editorial office of Forbes of the incident and “found understanding there”, he told Kommersant. The American Forbes in its turn put out an official statement yesterday, calling on Axel Springer Russia to “urgently publish a new issue of Russian Forbes just the way it was originally printed.” However, Forbes’ corporate relations vice-president Monnie Begly confirmed to Kommersant that Axel Springer is solely responsible for the content of Forbes Russia under the current agreement. Regina von Flemming, director general of Axel Springer Russia, told Kommersant: “The editor-in-chief of the magazine is responsible for the content of the magazine, and he is an employee of Axel Springer Russia.”
Peter Krueger, aide to Regina von Flemming, declined to give additional comments, referring to the company’s official statement. Gennady Terebkov, head of Inteko’s press service, also told Kommersant that “all information on the situation is given in the official statement of the publishing house.” “Inteko has nothing to add to this,” Terebkov said.
Viktor Shkulev, chair of the BOD at Ashet Filipaki Shkulev, which publishes Russia’s Elle and Maxim, says that “the scandal will damage reputation of Forbes”. “It shows either inaccuracy in quotations and facts or willingness to compromise at the expense of its own opinion,” he told Kommersant. “I think there can’t be other explanations for this story, but these two theories are absolutely unacceptable for professional media.” Elena Myasnikova, from the board of directors of the Independent Media publishers, says: “If the information in Forbes’s article is true, the magazine’s editorial office should have proved it in court. If our publishing house is convinced that the information we give is true, we will not stand for it.” Former editor of Forbes Russia and Smart Money’s editor-in-chief Leonid Bershidsky told Kommersant he had read Forbes’s story about Elena Baturina but “had not found any kind of libel.” “There were no legal grounds whatsoever to withdraw the issue,” he said. “If I was working in U.S. Forbes, I would strip Axel Springer of the license to publish the magazine in Russia.”
Alex Springer Russia is now frantically busy putting the December issue together again without the cover and the article about Inteko’s head, sources of Kommersant report. Kommersant has got hold of a copy of an email that Axel Springer Russia’s distribution manager Olga Reshetova sent to distributors of Forbes. The email says that the issue will be out “4 days later”, and the magazine will be sent to the distributors on December 3.
Ivan Tyazhlov
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 01, 2006
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