Warning to Vedomosti newspaper

On November 22, 2008, reports appeared that the Vedomosti newspaper received a warning from Rossvyazkomnadzor for publishing an article by board member of the Institute of Contemporary Development Evgeniy Gontmakher “Novocherkassk-2009” in the issue dated November 6, 2008. This form of influence on the media is rather “educational” and does not have direct legal consequences for the publication.

In the article, the author makes an attempt to describe one of the possible scenarios of social unrest in connection with the development of the crisis in the country.

The department’s letter, signed by deputy head Alexander Romanenkov, states that “throughout the entire material, the author contrasts two groups of citizens: laid-off and unemployed workers of the local city-forming enterprise, as well as those afraid of losing: warm places in the vertical of power; officials” and that “this information may be regarded as inciting extremist actions."

In our opinion, there is not a single sign of extremism in the article, and even such a mild form of influence on the newspaper seems inappropriate to us.

According to Evgeny Gontmakher, issuing a warning for his article is “the idiocy of petty bureaucracy,” and he intends to demand that “the guys from Roskomnadzor... prove what they were accused of.”

At the end of January 2009, the Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF) received a response to its request sent to Rossvyazkomnadzor in connection with the warning to the newspaper. GDF tried to find out the legal nature of the paper sent by the department to the newspaper. From the response letter from Rossvyazkomnadzor it became clear that the warning to Vedomosti had no legal status and was of a purely precautionary nature.

Sources

• Gontmakher E. Scenario: Novocherkassk-2009 // Vedomosti. 2008. November 6.
• "Vedomosti" warned // Vedomosti. 2008. November 21.
• The author of the “extremist” article in Vedomosti went on the offensive against Roskomsvyaznadzor // NewsRu.com. 2008. November 24.
• From GDF correspondence. “Anti-extremist prevention” // Digest of the Glasnost Defense Foundation. No. 416. 2009. January 26.