Global Voices Online

Russia: Journalism and Politics in Chechnya

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 @ 16:50 UTC

by Veronica Khokhlova

Countries:: Russia
Topics:: Freedom of Speech, Governance, Media, Politics
Languages:: Russian

LJ user oleg_panfilov (of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations) reports (RUS) that Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has joined the Russian Union of Journalists. LJ user timur_aliev, on the other hand, has quit as the editor of the Chechen Society newspaper to become Kadyrov's aide. (The Chechen Society is no longer being published (RUS), and its website is no longer there.) [Update 03/06: Kadyrov lasted for one day and then was expelled from the Union, in order to prevent other prominent members from leaving in protest. It also appears as if it wasn't his initiative to join, but that of the Union's Chechen chapter.]

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