MORE JOURNALISTS BEATEN AS FREEDOM HOUSE PANS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 001177

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM RS
SUBJECT: MORE JOURNALISTS BEATEN AS FREEDOM HOUSE PANS
RUSSIA

Classified By: Pol Minister Counselor Alice Wells; reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d)


1. (C) Summary: On May 3, the U.S.-based NGO Freedom House
released its report on freedom of speech worldwide in 2008,
ranking Russia 174th out of 195 countries and designating
Russia's media environment as "Not Free." The report pointed
to government pressure on journalists, a large proportion of
state-controlled media, self-censorship, and unsolved murders
of journalists in Russia. GOR and human rights contacts
questioned the report's efficacy as an advocacy tool for
domestic government critics, given its numerical ranking
system that placed Russia below such countries as the United
Arab Emirates, Jordan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nonetheless, civil society activists agreed that trendlines
remained poor, as violent attacks on journalists in Russia
continue, with the latest assault, against "Korruptsiya i
Prestupnost" editor Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, occurring on April
30 in Rostov-on-Don. End Summary.

Freedom House pans Russia
--------------


2. (U) On May 3, the U.S.-based NGO Freedom House (FH)
released its report on freedom of speech worldwide in 2008,
ranking Russia 174th out of 195 countries. The report
asserted that Russia's media environment is steadily
worsening with each passing year (its rank was 170th in 2007,
and 165th in 2006). Freedom House grouped countries into
three categories: Free, Partially Free, and Not Free, the
latter of which included Russia. Explaining Russia's low
ranking, the report pointed to government pressure on
journalists, a large proportion of state-controlled media
self-censorship, and unsolved murders of journalists.
According to the report, Russia has less freedom of speech
than such countries as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and
the Democratic Republic of Congo.

GOR and NGO reps alike question the report's logic
-------------- --------------


3. (C) Commenting on FH's ranking system, Human Rights Watch
Russia Office Director Allison Gill told us on May 7 that it
"presumably has some internal logic," but that she didn't see
a reason for it, as the relative ranking "distracts"
observers from the individual merits and/or problems of a
given country. Yuriy Dzhibladze, director of the Center for
the Development of Human Rights and Democracy, agreed with
this assessment, telling us on May 7 that "the Freedom House
ratings are not taken too seriously here," either by the GOR
or among the NGO community. He said that the reports "are
not seen as deep or thoughtful," and that the report's
comparisons "do not reflect the relative situations" in
different countries. According to Dzhibladze, it is absurd
to say that Russia, where print and Internet media daily
abound with harsh criticism of the government, has less press
freedom than the UAE, where impolitic Internet sites are
blocked and where it is impossible to find a single negative
word in print about the ruling family. He added that the FH
report "is actually counterproductive" to activists' goal of
persuading the GOR to listen to human rights criticism, as
"it gives the impression that all human rights issues are
politicized and simplistic." Roman Koshayev of the MFA's
Human Rights Division reflected this view, rejecting the FH
report in its entirety and telling us that "it exists for the
purpose of advancing some people's Russophobic goals."
Koshayev pointed out that FH receives about 80 percent of its
budget from the U.S. government.


4. (C) Both Gill and Dzhibladze stressed that, qualitatively,
they agreed that Russia suffers from serious problems in the
area of media freedom. Dzhibladze said that "the overall
dynamic of the report is accurate," and that he agreed with
the report's comparisons of trendlines within a particular
country from year to year. Igor Yakovenko of the Public
Expertise Foundation (who left the Russian Union of
Journalists in February after an internal dispute over his
anti-GOR stance),said that "the basic theses in this rating
are correct," although "some of Freedom House's methods are
very subjective." All of the contacts with whom we spoke
attributed Russia's low rating to the problem of violence
against journalists, and impunity for the attackers.

Meanwhile, violent attacks continue
--------------


6. (U) Indeed, even as the report came out, attacks on
journalists in Russia have continued. The latest assault
took place on April 30 in Rostov-on-Don, where Vyacheslav
Yaroshenko, editor of "Korruptsiya i Prestupnost" (Corruption
and Crime),was found unconscious with head wounds and spent

MOSCOW 00001177 002 OF 002


five days in a coma. His deputy editor, Sergey Sleptsov,
asserted that Yaroshenko was attacked because of his
reporting on the corruption of Rostov law enforcement
agencies. (Note: Sleptsov himself suffered a beating in 2007
that placed him in the hospital, after reporting on a case in
which authorities released an alleged criminal charged with
kidnapping and robbery. End note.) Rostov authorities first
announced that Yaroshenko had received his injuries in an
outdoor fistfight, and then changed their story and claimed
that he injured himself by falling down some stairs after
drinking.


7. (C) Nadezhda Azhgakhina of the RUJ told us May 6 that she
and her colleagues in the Union of Journalists were certain
that this attack was connected with Yaroshenko's work. She
said that the RUJ is "very concerned" about this and other
recent attacks, and said that they planned to bring the issue
to the attention of federal authorities as soon as possible.
She added that they are talking to their RUJ colleagues in
the regions in order to develop a plan of action for
supporting and showing "serious solidarity" with journalists
under attack. This plan, Azhgikhina said, would be unveiled
at a June 15 gathering on press freedom sponsored by UNESCO.


8. (U) The Yaroshenko attack joins an increasingly lengthy
list of attacks on journalists in 2009, including the
following:

-- On March 30, Sergey Protazanov, editor of "Grazhdanskoye
Soglasiye" (Civic Understanding) in Khimki, was found
unconscious near his home with bruises from an apparent
beating, and died the following day. Police claimed he died
as a result of something that he ate. Grazhdanskoye
Soglasiye was the last of three independent papers shut down
in Khimki, one of which was Mikhail Beketov's Khimkiskaya
Pravda; Beketov spent five months in a coma after a vicious
beating in November.
-- On March 20, three unidentified assailants beat Maksim
Zolotarev, editor of the independent newspaper Nova Yuzhnoye
Podmoskovye in the Moscow region, which had published
critical articles about local politicians.
-- On March 5, Vadim Rogozhin, managing director of the
independent media holding company Vzglyad in Saratov, whom
the RUJ website calls "one of the few Saratov publishers with
a principled human rights position," entered the hospital in
critical condition after two assailants struck him on the
head and knocked him unconscious.
-- On February 3, neighbors found 73-year-old Yuriy Grachev,
editor of the pro-opposition weekly Sonechnogorsky Forum in
the Moscow region, lying unconscious in the entrance of his
apartment building with multiple injuries and covered in
blood.
In all four instances, authorities refused to open an
investigation as to the perpetrators of the attacks, and in
some cases asserted that the journalist in question had not
been attacked at all.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) As our contacts noted, a quick survey of Russia's
print and electronic media on any given day yields a far more
complex picture than the one that the "Not Free" assessment
suggests. Nonetheless, the steady pace of violent attacks on
journalists, and authorities' response to them -- feckless at
best, collusive at worst -- itself testifies to the long road
that Russia still must travel to achieve full press freedom.
We will continue to monitor all of the above cases, and to
provide updates as we learn more information.
RUBIN