Intimidated

The mayor of Murmansk decided to become the censor of the newspaper "Vecherniy Murmansk"

The mayor of Murmansk ordered the material prepared for publication to be removed. As arguments, the head of the city threatened to liquidate the newspaper. As a result, the article “All to Court?”, which caused the fuss to flare up, was withdrawn almost from the printing house ....

The mayor of Murmansk ordered the material prepared for publication to be removed. As arguments, the head of the city threatened to liquidate the newspaper.

As a result, the article “All to Court?”, which caused the fuss to flare up, was almost withdrawn from the printing house. In this material, it was about the fact that the executive branch of the city violates the law by not recalculating for heating. As a result of this recalculation, 250-300 million rubles, according to experts' estimates, should be returned to Murmansk residents.

According to Natalya Chervyakova, editor-in-chief of Vecherny Murmansk, on the eve of the article's publication, Mayor Sergei Subbotin called her to a meeting and demanded that the article be removed. Under pressure from the mayor, she complied with his demands.

“I was just scared,” admitted Natalya Chervyakova. But then she came to her senses and decided to act.

The editor-in-chief applied to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Glasnost Defense Fund, the chief federal inspector for the Murmansk region Vladimir Losev, the governor of the Murmansk region Dmitry Dmitrienko, etc. In her statement, Natalya Chervyakova asked to protect the staff of the newspaper from censorship. One of the first to react to the situation was the investigative committee under the prosecutor's office, starting to check the facts. If they are confirmed, then Sergei Subbotin may be charged under Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: "Obstruction of the legitimate professional activities of journalists."

However, Sergei Alekseevich has already found an excuse, calling Chervyakova's statements a lie and slander. At the same time, he published a transcript of an audio recording of a telephone conversation with the chairman of the city Council of Deputies, Alexei Veller, where there were ... demands not to publish the already mentioned material and it was said that the newspaper "it would be better to liquidate then."

PS The Commission of the Public Chamber has decided to take control of the situation around the newspaper Vecherniy Murmansk. Representatives of the Presidential Office sent requests to the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliyev with a request to conduct an audit on this appeal.