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Putin Served with Closed Oyster
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been awarded with a German media “negative award” for trampling on free journalism. Mr. Putin became the first non-German to receive this unflattering prize.
Netzwerk Recherche, an independent journalist organization, held its annual conference in Hamburg, Germany, last week, highlighting freedom of the media in Eastern Europe.
The journalists awarded the Closed Oyster prize to Russian President Vladimir Putin for “hampering the development of free media” and “lack of results in the investigation into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya”.
“Vladimir Putin is an impeccable opponent of speech and press freedoms,” Netzwerk Recherche’s Thomas Leif said in a clear reference to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who once described the Russian leaders as an “impeccable democrat”. Thomas Leif added that 14 journalists have been killed during Mr. Putin’s time in office. The Russian presidential administration did not reply to an official invitation to visit the award ceremony.
Vladimir Putin is the first non-German to receive the Closed Oyster. Earlier this negative award went to press-averse German officials and public figures.
Reporters without Borders called Vladimir Putin an enemy of press freedom last year, ranking the Russian president among leaders in overtly undemocratic Belarus, Turkmenistan, Cuba and North Korea.
“We welcome criticism, and we are willing to listen to it as long as it is fair and aimed to change the situation for the batter,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, said, adding that criticizing the Russian league has recently come into vogue.
The Russian Union of Journalists insists, however, that the curtailing of press freedom is a thought-out policy of the Russian leadership.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 18, 2007
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