A meeting in protection of the journalists accused of extremism passed off in Moscow

On October, 14, an action of protest against prosecution of Buryat journalists Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatyana Stetsyura accused of extremism for distribution of leaflets about Stalin's deportation of the Ingush and Chechen peoples was held in Moscow, in Chistoprudny boulevard.

About 30 representatives of different non-governmental and political organizations gathered at 17:30 near Griboyedov memorial, in the square enclosed with militia metallic barriers. "Democratic Union" had been the organizer of the meeting.

There were about ten militiamen at the area of the meeting. The militia officers were taking videos of the events. A militia major was recording and reporting on the phone the texts of all the posters displayed during the action.

Leaflets with the latest round-ups of kidnapping and armed confrontations in North Caucasus were distributed at the meeting.

Some passers by were trying to provoke conflicts insulting the participants who were holding posters.

Pavel Liuzakov, editor-in-chief of "Free Speech" paper where a number of articles had been published which had become an occasion for accusing Nizovkina and Stetsyura was present at the meeting, too. The editor was also holding a poster and telling those present about the details of the criminal case against his reporters. The meeting ended at 19.00.