"We are talking about direct pressure on journalists"

Statement of employees of Kommersant after the dismissal of their colleagues

The Kommersant team made an appeal to readers after journalists Ivan Safronov and Maxim Ivanov were dismissed from the newspaper, and all employees of the policy department submitted after them in the protest of the dismissal. At the time of publication, the appeal was signed by more than 120 employees of the publishing house. "Medusa" publishes this text entirely.

Today, our editorial office officially announced that the Kommersant Publishing House had interrupted labor relations with our two employees - Kommersant Special Correspondent Ivan Safronov and Deputy editor of the Politics Department Maxim Ivanov. Formally, dismissal is framed by the “agreement of the parties”; Representatives of the Kommersant shareholder, businessman Alisher Usmanov, told Vedomosti that he "did not intervene in an editorial policy and, moreover, did not make decisions on the dismissal or hiring of journalists." “Alisher Burkhanovich learned about the dismissal of Kommersant’s employees from the press messages,” the representative said.

However, according to our colleagues, the personnel decision was explained to them by the requirement of shareholder of the ID, businessman Alisher Usmanov. The reason was a note of “speakers from these people”, which says about the possible departure of Valentina Matvienko from the post of chairman of the Federation Council. As often happens in the realities of modern Russian politics, the material used information and quotes from anonymous sources. The note fully met the Kommersant standards, which always relies on reliable and proven sources. Moreover, immediately after the publication, the authors were awarded for this material (according to tradition, they write out a symbolic cash prize to the authors of the best material of the number).

According to our colleagues, later the shareholder expressed displeasure of the article and demanded to reveal the identity of the sources. According to the Law on the media and the employment contract, Kommersant employees, the editors are obliged to secretly maintain the source of information and is not entitled to call the person who provided information with the condition of non -disclosure of his name. The only exception is the presence of a court request. Kommersant journalists refused to violate the trust of the interlocutors. After that, it was decided to dismiss two authors of the material. Direct appeals to the shareholder and his representative did not affect the situation; The shareholder did not offer any compromises or other options.

Maxim Ivanov worked in Kommersant for more than ten years. By a decade, Ivan Safronov did not have enough for several months in Kommersant. Here for ten years his father, Ivan Safronov-Sr., who died tragically in 2007; It remains an example of professionalism for the whole edition. Max and Vanya are brilliant, professional journalists, smart and decent people. The Kommersant team - full -time, freelance, regional, technical employees; The team of the ID site and the Kommersant Radio Station-considers their dismissal unreasonable, destructive for the editorial office, as well as an open manifestation of pressure on freedom of speech in Russia.

The editorial standards of the ID were formed for three decades - the founder of the publication and the team. During this time, the publication replaced several owners and chief editors, but continued to work according to high editorial standards. Now people who have achieved undoubted success in other areas, but were not directly related to journalism have intervened in these standards. When preparing an article, as well as after its publication, questions did not arise for standards. We are forced to admit that we are talking about direct pressure on journalists.

After the forced departure of Max and Vanya, the entire department of politics wrote statements about dismissal. Currently, the editor is left by Kommersant Deputy editor Gleb Cherkasov, editor of the policy department Alla Barakhova, deputy editor Maria-Luiza Tirmaste, correspondents Natalia Korchenkova, Alexander Georgevich, Sofya Samokhina, Lisa Miller, Katerina Grobman, Vsevolod Inyutin and Special Corre Pushkarskaya. Employees plan to complete the work obligations in the near future.

The Kommersant team considers itself obligated to inform the readers that Kommersant will not be able to inform them about Russian politics for an indefinite for a long time. Readers, partners and advertisers of the ID will be deprived of high -quality and unbiased lighting of a number of internal political events; We do not know how much this situation will last. Such a forced break occurs for the first time in the 30-year history of the publishing house. We apologize to our readers.

Perhaps among our readers there are those who are able to explain to the shareholders of the ID, that right now they are destroying one of the best media in Russia. The work of Kommersant is important for the whole society and our entire country. Those who destroy it for the sake of short -term political dividends do not know the history of Russia well. We are sure that our country is worthy of a better future. Worthy of freedom of speech.