Karastelyova: information war against "curfew" opponents in Novorossisk

Tamara Karastelyova, director of the Novorossisk Human Rights Committee (NHRC), has complained of a discrediting campaign launched against those who stand for cancelling the law on "curfew" for children in Novorossisk; the campaign is conducted with use of mass media and Internet portals.

"All these actions and information messages, aimed to 'accuse' us, obviously have to do with our campaign for cancellation of the so-called 'children's law'. The website, where the article appeared with false charges against us is called 'Portal of Civil Society of Krasnodar Territory', then, the material from this site began to spread over other information resources," Tamara Karastelyova said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, the author of a material is Sergey Novikov, who works with the "Novorossiskie Novosti" newspaper, founded by the city administration. According to Alina Reznichenko, manager of the site, it is owned by the Krasnodar territorial NGO named "Guild of Journalists and PR Specialists" and funded by the youth organization "Young Guards of United Russia".

The title of the article published on June 17 is "Just Business, Sirs!"

Tamara's husband Vadim Karastelyov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the facts presented in the article "are twice distorted."

He has noted that from the very start of human rights activities of the NHRC, pro-governmental media were putting forward charges against it of espionage in favour of foreign states.

"Now, the authorities try to discredit our activities by reducing them to banal money-earning and sale of ideas in exchange of invitations to international conferences. In 2002, an official of territorial administration already offered us 'preferences' in exchange for support of the course of territorial authorities towards evicting Meskhetian Turks to Georgia; however, they failed to win our support. In revenge, under far-fetched grounds, they liquidated the Foundation 'School of Peace'," Vadim Karastelyov said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He has added that the publication in question was anonymous, however, he knows the author. "It's a pity that the author, apparently, wasn't allowed, or, possibly, afraid to place the article in his newspaper. We already have successful experience of defending our honour and dignity in courts and, certainly, would sue the author," said Karastelyov.

According to his wife Tamara, Alina Reznichenko, manager of the site "Portal of Civil Society of Krasnodar Territory", answered in her letter to Vadim that she had herself learnt about this publication from the Karastelyovs.

"Most likely, someone just had passwords for getting access to the site and place the article there," said the leader of the NHRC, adding that the campaign against the Centre has obviously failed.

"The people mentioned in the article who had allegedly spoke against us are indignant, as their words were simple 'picked randomly out of context'," said Tamara Karastelyova.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent failed to contact Alina Reznichenko directly: her mobile phone remained silent to numerous calls from the "Caucasian Knot" editorial office.

We note here that on June 22 the link with the text "Just Business, Sirs!" published by the visitor with nick koLini_maLini on June 17 at 6:03 p.m. was removed by the manager of the site. However, copies of the article still remain in others information resources.