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President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin G President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin g. Moskva, Kreml Russian Federation Fax: + 7 095 206 85 10 / + 7 095 206 51 73 / + 7 095 230 24 08 e-mail: [email protected] 6-8 Amwell Street London, 28 September 2006 London EC1R 1UQ United Kingdom Tel: 44 20 7278 9292 Dear President Putin, Fax: 44 20 7278 7660 Email: [email protected] Web: www.article19.org ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned at the closure of the weekly Kaliningradskie Noviye Kolesa in Kaliningrad and the criminal charges laid against the Executive Director newspaper’s journalists, in particular Oleg Berezovsky, whose case is due to be Dr Agnès Callamard heard on 29 September 2006. Noviye Kolesa is known for its vigorous criticism of local government officials. International Board Galina Arapova (Russia) The manner in which the multiple cases against the newspaper and its staff have Param Cumaraswamy (Malaysia) Paul Hoffman (US) been pursued poses serious questions about Russia’s compliance with its Gara LaMarche (US) obligations, under international law and under the federal Constitution, to respect Daisy Li (Hong Kong) the right to freedom of expression and to guarantee the fairness of trials. Jorge Islas Lopez (Mexico) Goenawan Mohamad (Indonesia) Arne Ruth (Sweden) On 16 August 2006, the Kaliningrad Regional Court issued an order to close Malcolm Smart (UK) Noviye Kolesa, on the grounds of ‘disclosing classified information' relating to a Executive Board criminal investigation into the murder of a local businessman. The articles in Heather Rogers (Chair) question were based on transcripts of video and audio recordings of testimonies George Alagiah Louise Christian given by the detainees in the case, who confessed that agents from the Mark Hengstler Kaliningrad branch of the Federal Security Service had organised the murder. Richard Sambrook Catherine Smadja Mary-Ann Stephenson Furthermore, Mr. Berezovsky was charged with criminal defamation after a complaint by judges of the Kaliningrad Regional Court relating to an article written in 2004. The judges - Lyudmila Dolgova, Tatyana Tatarova, and Oksana Honorary Member Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma) Semyonova - maintain that Berezovsky accused them of accepting bribes, even though the article simply questioned the Regional Court’s acquittal and release of Aleksandr Fuks, who had previously been sentenced by a lower court to four years’ imprisonment for drug dealing. ARTICLE 19 The investigator assigned to the case is the son of another judge who has Research and Information previously been criticised in an article written by Berezovsky. The government Centre on Censorship prosecutor, L. Chochrina has in the past worked under Tatarova’s supervision for (A company limited by guarantee) more than 2 years. Moreover, A. Chernobilets, who has been appointed to preside Company No.: 2097222 in the trial, is yet another judge who has been criticised in a number of articles Reg. Charity No.: 327421 written by O. Berezovsky is. Criminal prosecutions have also been instituted against the founder of Noviye Kolesa, Igor Rudnikov, and its journalists Aleksandr Berezovsky and Dina Yakshina. They have been charged with defamation, insulting public officials, or/and beating police officers. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’ ARTICLE 19 is highly concerned about the forthcoming criminal defamation trial, which might result in the imprisonment of Oleg Berezovsky. Scrutiny of the judiciary by the press is vital to democracy. Through their reporting on trials, journalists enable the general public to verify that judges are properly discharging their responsibilities. By exposing instances of judicial misconduct or miscarriages of justice, the media can help ensure the overall health of the justice system and contribute to the public’s confidence in it. While international law, as reflected for example in Article 10(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights, permits certain measures to protect members of the judiciary against unfounded attacks on their reputation, these measures should be strictly proportionate and, in the words of Article 10(2), “necessary in a democratic society”. The European Court of Human Rights has consistently interpreted this condition to mean that public officials, including judges, should tolerate more, not less, criticism than ordinary individuals. Moreover, the Court has emphasised that public bodies must “display restraint in resorting to criminal proceedings”1 and has never upheld a prison sentence imposed for criminal defamation. Likewise, the closure of the Noviye Kolesa newspaper appears as an unjustifiable, or at least seriously disproportionate measure in contravention of international law. Closure of a newspaper is one of the most serious interferences with freedom of expression and can only be justified after repeated and serious violations of the law, established by an impartial court after a fair trial. ARTICLE 19 is furthermore concerned about the obvious possibility of bias with the investigator, prosecutor and presiding judge in O. Berezovsky’s case. Any decision against Mr. Berezovsky will have a cloud of doubt hanging over it, whatever the actual motivation of the officials in question. In conclusion, we call upon you to: • Ensure that Mr. Berezovsky receives a fair trial on 29 September. • Immediately allow Noviye Kolesa to resume publication. • Take measures to ensure that no further prosecutions for criminal defamation take place, particularly where the purpose is not genuinely and demonstrably to protect an individual’s reputation against unjustified attack; • Take necessary steps in order to replace all criminal provisions on defamation with appropriate civil defamation laws. Yours sincerely, Dr. Agnès Callamard Executive Director 1 Castells v. Spain, 23 April 1992, Application No. 11798 (European Court of Human Rights), para. 46. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’ CC. Chief of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Lebedev 121260, 15, Povarskaya street, Moscow, Email: [email protected] Tel: +7 495 924-2347 Human Rights Commissioner of the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin 107084, 47, Myasnitskaya street., Moscow. E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +7 495 2071922 Fax: +7 495 2073969 Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Vladimir Ustinov 125993, 15, Bolshaya Dmitrovka street, Moscow Tel.: +7 495 6929600 Chairman of the Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova 103132, 4, Staraya Square, Moscow Tel.: +7 495 2064914 E-mail: [email protected] Chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber on communications, information policy and freedom of speech in the mass media Pavel Gusev 125993, house 7 building 1, Miusskaya Square, Moscow. Tel.: +7 495 2218361 E-mail: [email protected] General Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists Igor Yakovenko 119992, 4, Zubovsky boulevard, Moscow. Tel.: +7 495 2015101 Fax: +7 495 2013547 E-mail: [email protected] Minister of culture and mass communications of the Russian Federation Alexander Sokolov 109074, office 102a, house 7, Kitaygorodskiy passway, Moscow Tel.: + 7 495 9283872 Minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov 119200, 32/34, Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square, Moscow Tel: + 7 495 2443448 E-mail: [email protected] Head of the Federal Service on supervision over legality in the sphere of mass communications and preservation of cultural heritage Boris Boyarskov 123995, 12, Malaya Nikitskaya, Moscow Tel.: +7 495 2902979 Head of the Committee on Informational Policy, State Duma of the Russian Federation Valery Komissarov 103265, Moscow, 1, Ohotnyi Ryad str. Tel.: +7 495 2929630 Fax: +7 495 2928153 Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’ .
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