H.E. Dmitri Medvedev
President
Russian Federation
Fax: (011.7.495) 206-6277/ 5173
H.E. Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister
Russian Federation
Fax: (011.7.495) 206-4622, 205-4219
Your Excellencies:
We call your attention to the case of Mikhail Afanasyev, editor of the on-line journal, Novy Focus, who has been charged with slander over reports he filed suggesting that Russian officials may not be doing enough to find possible survivors of a dam disaster. This accusation highlights an essential point regarding free speech and the legitimate limits of media coverage in a free society.
The disaster was the explosion, so far unexplained, that flooded a turbine chamber at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-electric plant in Abakan, in southwestern Siberia, on August 17. Officials say seventy one employees died as a result of the explosion, while more than twenty are still missing.
Afanasyev reported the findings of two journalists who were at the scene, Eric Chernyshev and Gregory Nazarenko. He also quoted the claims of relatives that there were survivors in air pockets in the flooded chamber who could be heard banging on its walls. And he quoted angry comments by relatives of employees who felt the authorities were not doing everything possible to extricate survivors from the rubble, and instead were trying to cover up the cause of the accident.
The authorities accused Afanasyev of defamation and confiscated his computer and mobile phone. They said he had tried to “attack the dignity” of the rescue efforts and “sow panic in the local population.” Afanasyev says he was trying to save lives.
Your Excellencies, it must surely be obvious that the important issue in this case is not the dignity of the authorities, but the reality of what they did and whether it was adequate. As David Dadge, director of the International Press Institute, has observed, “The Russian authorities must realize that the decision to prosecute Afanasyev will inevitably lead to further speculation that there is substance to his reporting. Rather than punishing a journalist, the authorities would be better off openly and transparently investigating this possibility and then informing the public.”
As we have often written you, it is long past time for you to keep your often-repeated promises to protect the journalists of Russia as they go about their business of reporting the news to your people.
Thank you for your attention. We would appreciate a reply.
Respectfully yours,
Larry Martz
Norman A. Schorr
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E. Sergey V. Lavrov
Foreign Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Moscow 121200
Russian Federation
Fax:(011.7.495) 244.3448
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation
to the United Nations
136 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10021
Fax: (212) 628.0252
Aleksey K. Simonov
President
Glasnost Defense Foundation
4 Zubovskiy Boulevard., # 432
Moscow 119021
Russia
Fax: (011.7.495) 637.4947
Andrew McChesney
Editor-in-Chief
The Moscow Times
Ul. Polkovaya, 3, Bldg. 1
Moscow 127018
Russia
E-mail: mcchesney@imedia.ru
H.E. Yuriy V. Ushakov
Ambassador of Russia to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Fax: (202) 298.5735
Dmitri Peskov
First Deputy Spokesman of the
President of the Russian Federation
c/o Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Fax: (202) 298.5735
H.E. William J. Burns
U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Embassy of the United States of America
8 Bolshoy Devyatinskiy
Pereulok, Moscow 121099
Russia
Fax: (011.7.495) 728.5090
Andrey V. Vasilyev
Editor-in-Chief
Kommersant Daily
4 Vrubelya Street
Moscow
Russia
E-mail: kommersant@kommersant.ru