23:30, 21 June 2010

Corriere Della Sera apologizes to Chechen employee of the HRC "Memorial"

Andrea Nikastro, a journalist of the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, has explained the fact of distortion of the words of Doku Itslaev, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Chechnya, by the deficit of time he had for the publication.

Andrea Nikastro has apologized to the HRC "Memorial" and Doku Itslaev that the text of article, against the preliminary arrangement, was not sent to the human rights activist for approval, and other people's words were ascribed to him as a result.

"I'm also grateful to you for your consent to publicly comment the situation with human rights in Chechnya under the condition that your opinion would not be distorted in my article," runs the journalist's statement on the occasion.

Andrea Nikastro expressed his regret about the incident, having explained it by the tough schedule setup for his publication, and expressed hope for cooperation in the future.