| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Freedom of Speech Exercised in Response
The Council of Europe and UNESCO criticized Russia for the unsolved murders of journalists in the country on May 3, International Freedom of Speech Day. The day before, Russia was mentioned on three Western organizations' lists of countries with an unfree press. (Kommersant reported on it at the time.) Now Russia is responding. Mediasoyuz and the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (Russian abbreviation VTsIOM) will monitor Russian freedom of the press and a Russian organization is being registered in Brussels to rate civil liberties in the West.
UNESCO general director Koichiro Matsuura pointed out in a written message in May 3 that more than 150 journalists were killed in 2006 and hundreds more arrested, threatened or attacked because of their professional activities.
Yesterday, vice president of Mediasoyuz Elena Zelinskaya announced that her organization and VTsIOM will launch the Freedom of Speech Index with the involvement of the Public Chamber. It will monitor journalists' education, the region's advertising market, local authorities' relationship with the press and publications' property, that is, it will establish media freedom from business and the government.
Another member of the Public Chamber, Anatoly Kucherena, told Kommersant that a new Association of Human Rights Organizations was being set up in Brussels to track civil liberties in the West and compile ratings like the ones that Russia usually looks bad in. “There are problems with human rights everywhere,” he explained. “For example, the States are known for their frying pan' – execution by the electric chair.” Kucherena continued that “A negative ideological context in relation to our country blows through Western reports. That influences the image of Russia broad and the attitude toward Russians. It is unpleasant for me, as a citizen of Russia, when our country is placed on the same line as Afghanistan or Angola based on ideology.”
Lyudmila Alexeeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group commented that “retaliatory initiatives are funny.” Head of the Russian Union of Journalists Igor Yakovenko commented that “It's a different logic, different language and different goals [from Western human right organizations]. Those people know the results of their monitoring in advance.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 04, 2007
|
|
|
