Moscow Times - 07.19.02

 

The Moscow Times

Paper Banned for Racist Content

By Nabi Abdullaev

A Moscow court has ordered that a tiny nationalist newspaper be shut down for inciting ethnic hatred with stories denigrating Jews, Asians and people from the Caucasus.

The decision was a victory for the Press Ministry, which for the first time succeeded in banning a publication for breaking the law on mass media by running stories fomenting ethnic conflict. Some observers, however, said the ministry may just have found an easy opportunity to show its ardor for the Kremlin's declared fight against racial hatred.

The Timiryazevsky district court issued its verdict Wednesday against Russkiye Vedomosti. The four-page newspaper, founded in 1990, published four times a year and had a circulation of 10,000. It took its name from a respected newspaper closed by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

The Press Ministry's lawyer, Yelena Bunina, said Thursday that a single issue of the newspaper in 2000 had contained more than 100 slurs that broke the law. "We are fully satisfied with the court decision," she said.

She said the ministry warned the newspaper twice last year, but it had continued to print anti-Semitic and racist stories. The ministry filed suit against the newspaper in November 2001, and court proceedings began in January.

Russkiye Vedomosti editor Viktor Korchagin slammed the ruling Thursday. "I consider it an attempt to put an end to the freedom of the press in Russia and to block the voice of Russian patriots," he said.

Korchagin, who owns the Moscow-based Vityaz publishing house, conceded that his newspaper was openly anti-Semitic. "My paper indeed reported that the Jewish mafia is carrying out a genocide of the Russian people and called for Jews and people from the Caucasus to be deported," he said.

He said the newspaper had been self-supporting and received no financing from nationalist groups.

Prosecutors have charged Korchagin with inciting ethnic hatred before. In 1993 and 2001, judges closed cases for lack of evidence. In 1995, a court found Korchagin guilty on the same charge, fining him and barring him from publishing for three years. However, he was immediately amnestied under a decree signed by President Boris Yeltsin to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the victory over the Nazis in World War II.

Alexei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a freedom of speech watchdog, said he considered the content of Russkiye Vedomosti to be illegal and that the ban was certainly not a crackdown on the freedom of the press.

Vyacheslav Likhachev, a nationalism expert with the Panorama think tank, said that although he personally found Russkiye Vedomosti offensive, the Press Ministry could find a better way to show its zeal against extremist media.

"There are plenty of nationalist newspapers published monthly and weekly with similar content and a much larger circulation," he said. "Korchagin was just a convenient scapegoat picked for his notoriety in the courts."

Likhachev suggested that Russkiye Vedomosti was targeted because Korchagin was highly critical of President Vladimir Putin, unlike many other nationalists. 

In addition, Korchagin lacks an outspoken readership that could protest the shutdown, he said.

Korchagin said he would not appeal the court's ruling. "I will not amuse them," he said.