The administration of the Oryol region is fighting Oryol News

In issue 47 of Novaya Gazeta for 2005, an article was published entitled "Incorrect feathers found in Orel." The editorial team of the non-state newspaper Orlovskiye Novosti, which publishes critical articles about the current regional administration and governor Yegor Stroyev, is under unprecedented pressure from the administration.

Andrey Kanatnikov, the general director of the newspaper, asserts that the newspaper came under "hard administrative pressure, faced with attempts by the regional authorities to introduce censorship" . The police conduct raids to reveal the facts of the sale of the newspaper, "district officials instruct the postal service not to order the newspaper for sale" . There were cases, says A. Kanatnikov, when the newspaper was not delivered to people by subscription, there is evidence that the administration was instructed to identify subscribers to Oryol News.

The editorial staff is subjected to constant psychological pressure, and the founder of the newspaper, Marina Ivashina, who refused to film a story about the appointment of the governor's daughter as a representative of the Oryol region in the Federation Council, was hit on the head by hooligans (a criminal case has been opened, but the criminals, A. Kanatnikov believes, most likely will not be found).

Aleksey Bogomolov, adviser to the governor of the Oryol region on public relations, who was given the opportunity by Novaya Gazeta to express his official point of view on what is happening, believes that the whole point is in the poor quality of the newspaper’s materials, which is why residents of the region do not buy it, but no pressure from there is no side of the administration and never was.

On July 12, 2005, the Institute for Public Problems "United Europe" circulated an information message stating that the Institute had applied to the prosecutor's office of the Oryol region with a criminal case "on the fact of obstructing the legal activities of journalists." After numerous checks, delays and appeals by human rights activists to the court, the prosecutor's office's evasion of considering the application to initiate this criminal case was declared illegal by the decision of Nadezhda Chekanikhina, judge of the Sovetsky District Court Orel.

Sources

• Krieger I. Wrong feathers found in Orel // New Newspaper. 2005. No. 47.
• The newspaper is sued // Center "Demos". 2005. July 12.