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Oksana Chelysheva: The slow, painful death of journalism in Russia

Oksana Chelysheva: The slow, painful death of journalism in Russia

For a while, we are not going to be acting as a clearing house for news about Chechnya

Published: 05 February 2007

Did you read about the death of press freedom in Russia the other day? Well, probably not. Independent journalism doesn't expire in a single, dramatic moment. It's more like a series of small blows, leading not to out-and-out demise but suffocation and a life-sucking loss of morale. Another significant punch was landed last month. Russia's Supreme Court in Moscow closed the Russian Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) on 23 January. This non-governmental organisation, which I helped run in Nizhny Novgorod, was the home for independent journalism on Chechnya. So, they closed us down and - for a while at least - we're not going to be acting as a clearing-house for journalism about Chechnya.  Read More

Russian human rights defenders face on going harassment

On 22 March 2007, police officers arrived at the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia with the suspected intent of detaining two of its leaders, Stanislav Dmitrievsky and Oksana Chelysheva.

The two human rights defenders managed to obstruct the police officer’s plans by immediately contacting international human rights organizations and western diplomats in Moscow officers. The attack on the office is the latest in a series of police actions against the leaders of human rights organizations over recent days. Both Stanislav Dmitrievsky and Oksana Chelysheva have been subjected to heavy police surveillance, and uninvited visitors have presented themselves at their residences.

On January 23, the Federal Supreme Court of Russia denied an appeal of a lower court's order to close the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). The RCFS, based in Nizhny Novgorod, was one of the few remaining organizations in Russia that was reporting on human rights conditions in Chechnya and the North Caucasus.  Read More

Statement from the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society following its forced closure

Oksana Chelysheva, Editor of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency

RCFS IS NOT GOING TO STOP OUR HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACEMAKING AND HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES

Open statement by the RCFS on the decision taken by the Russian Supreme Court to liquidate it.

On 23 January 2007 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decision of the Regional Court of the Russian Federation to liquidate our organization, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.

We were originally ordered to close down in October last year on the basis of a new NGO and anti-extremism law that made it illegal for an NGO to be headed by a person convicted of "extremist" activities. The Russian authorities wanted us to denounce the acts of our chair Stanislaw Dmitirevskiy and to remove him from our board. Furthermore, they expected us to announce this big news about our act of repudiation from our friend and colleague in public. It would have been dishonorable for us. Neither people in Nizhny Novgorod nor in the North Caucasus permitted such a disgraceful option of saving our bacon by sacrificing our friend.  Read More

Funds seizure concerns Russian human rights defenders

12 september 2005

Prominent Russian human rights organisations including Memorial and The Moscow Helsinki Group, have collectively expressed their concern in a joint statement, over the seizure of funds by Russian tax authorities from the human rights organisation the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society

Russian Tax authorities (FTE) have demanded approximately 1,000,000 Roubles (approximately $35,000) in back taxes and fines for the alleged failure of the RCFS to pay tax on international grants. The FTE began forcefully withdrawing funds from the organization’s bank accounts on 26 August 2005, although the case is being appealed in arbitration court and no final decision has yet been made. Without these funds, which were raised through grants from the European Commission and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the organization will be forced to close.

Article 251 of the tax code of the Russian Federation states that tax free grants must be dedicated to “education, arts culture and environmental defence fields”. The deputy chief of tax inspection is arguing that the RCFS is using the subsidy for “publishing and diffusing publications”.  Read More

FL Press Release - Russian / Chechen Friendship in Dublin, April 2004

Three members of the Society of Russian Chechen Friendship (SRCF) have been killed in the last two and a half years, a fourth has "disappeared." Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, has invited Oksana Chelysheva, Imran Ezhiev and Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, founding members of the Society of Russian Chechen Friendship to Dublin from the 13th –19th April to discuss how to strengthen the protection for human rights defenders in Chechnya.

“Human Rights Defenders in Chechnya are amongst those most at risk of being killed" said Mary Lawlor, Front Line Director, "their courageous work in an extremely hostile and dangerous environment is a great inspiration and it is crucial that we find ways to support them.”  Read More

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