"Unwanted" journalists turned away from Public Prosecutor's press conference in Kabardino-Balkaria

Today, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the correspondent of the IA "Regnum" and a number of other journalists who have been long working in the Republic were not admitted to the press conference of Oleg Zharikov, newly-appointed Public Prosecutor of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Leon Murzakanov, the employee of the Prosecutor's Office of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) in charge of working with mass media has referred to the Public Prosecutor himself who had allegedly ordered to invite only representatives of the Republic's printed masses media to the press conference.

The request of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent to let him in was rejected, despite the fact that earlier we had received our accreditation.

The press service of the KBR Ministry of Internal Affairs also would not let the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent to its press conferences. Marina Kyasova, head of the press service, said directly that the reason was in critical publications about the operation of law enforcement bodies.

Making his comments on the situation, Valery Hatazhukov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre, said: "The situation when access to information is restricted is a violation of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which runs that citizens shall have the right to receive objective information, and any censorship shall be prohibited. ...Besides, I find it absolutely stupid to refuse providing information to such a solid edition like the "Caucasian Knot," which is read by federal agencies, officials in the region and elsewhere in the world."