In Dagestan, journalists prevent awarding the "Nastoyaschee Vremya" newspaper

The organizers of the contest of the Union of Journalists of Dagestan "Golden Eagle" wanted to award the prize in nomination "Debut of the Year" to the newspaper "Nastoyaschee Vremya" (Current Time); however, the ceremony was disrupted by the journalists who had been earlier dismissed from this newspaper.

Under the decision of the contest jury, the "Nastoyaschee Vremya" was announced to be the winner in the nomination "Debut of the Year". On June 5, Ali Kamalov, Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Dagestan, invited Rizvan Rizvanov, director general, and Khanzhan Kurbanov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Nastoyaschee Vremya", to receive their award.

At that moment, Svetlana Anokhina, a former journalist of the newspaper, appeared on the stage and said: "This prize should be handed over to the former editor-in-chief Andrei Melamedov, and not to the sitting here Khanzhan Kurbanov and Rizvan Rizvanov, who have actually raped the newspaper."

Chairman Ali Kamalov tried to settle the situation saying: "But if the child was born already?"

"If the child was born, it does not mean that it should be given to paedophiles for upbringing," Ms Anokhina said.

Then, she took the award away from Kamalov's hands and on June 10 transferred it to Andrei Melamedov, former editor-in-chief, who on March 13, 2008, was forced to quit the paper because of the conflict between the paper staff and director general Rizvan Rizvanov, who, according to the newspaper journalists, interfered into their editorial policy.