Committee to Protect Journalists demands not to evict Journalists' Union

The Federal Agency for Property Management is evicting the Union of Journalists of Russia from its Moscow office, while the Union is preparing to hold the 26th World Congress of Journalists planned in the Russian capital on May 28 - June 1 with participation of mass media representatives from many countries of the world. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned with these actions of the government and calls on the Russian authorities not to interfere with the normal operation of the largest association of Russian journalists. Nina Ognyanova, Coordinator of the CPJ Programme for Europe and Central Asia, has informed about this fact.

Igor Yakovenko, Secretary General of the Union of Journalists of Russia, has informed today the CPJ that the Union received a notification from the Federal Agency for Property Management ("Rosimuschestvo"), dated April 18, with a prescription to leave within a month the premises in Zubovskiy Boulevard, where the head office of the Union is located. According to Mr. Yakovenko, the notification was delivered only today; therefore, the Union of Journalists has only two days left for moving out of the premises, which were occupied by this organization and its predecessors since 1980.