Journalists claim freedom of speech infringed upon in Dagestan

In Dagestan, director general of the "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present time) newspaper, has prohibited the publication of the issue in which journalists placed the materials on violation of the freedom of speech by the founders.

Rizvan Rizvanov is currently acting as director general of the ООО "Editing Board of Newspaper "Nastoyascheye Vremya". The prohibition only refers to one issue which contains several articles in which the journalists relay the story of numerous violations of the "Law on Mass Media" by anonymous founders, the newspaper sponsors and personally by the director general.

Andrei Melamedov, the newspaper's chief editor, has resigned in protest against the policy of the founders, all other journalists have signed a collective address to the readers and an open letter to Suleiman Kerimov, a billionaire and member of the Council of the Federation, whom Rizvanov calls the main sponsor responsible for the founders' policy.

Among the violations cited by the journalists are numerous interventions into the editing and personnel policy of the newspaper and attempts to force "information killership". The journalists of the  "Nastoyascheye Vremya" have applied to the prosecutor's office with a request to check the actions of the newspaper founders for abidance by the provisions of the "Law on Mass Media", reports "Gazeta.Ru".