The group of liberal deputies in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) made a statement in support of the independent massmedia in Russia.

According to the First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction, Sergei Ivanenko, at its meeting on Monday, April 23, 2001, the group unanimously adopted astatement “On the Freedom of the Independent Mass Media in Russia”. Ivanenko and Alexander Shishlov, who is also a member of the Yabloko faction of the Russian Duma, are members of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation at the spring session of PACE in Strasbourg.

The statement stressed that the group of liberal and democrats of PACE consider "the takeover by force of NTV, closure of the newspaper Segodnya, and the dismissal of the entire journalistic staff of the magazine Itogi constitutes the beginning of a comprehensive onslaught on freedomof speech in Russia.”

According to the authors of the statement, “covering up its actions with arbitrarily interpreted legal procedures, the Kremlin Administration is trying to eliminate even the possibility of citizens having free access to information which is in direct violation of the basic principles of the Council of Europe.”

The liberals of the European Parliament think that Gazprom's financial interests are a “mere pretext for carrying out political orders”, and the blows have been aimed primarily at the media and journalists who have refused to accept the rules of the game of "managed democracy" and dared to criticise specific actions and the policies of thecountry's leadership as a whole.”

The group also spoke in favour of the consideration of the issue of the “legality of the destruction of NTV by the Supreme Court of Russia”.

The statement also stressed that the member states of the Council of Europe bear responsibility for the protection of the rights of citizens to objective and independent information and protection of the rights of journalists to perform professional activity.

The present document was adopted on the initiative of representatives of Yabloko who are members of the Group of Liberals, Democrats and Reformers.

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:

NTV Case