27 February 2008, 10:39
Tskhurbaev: confiscation of computers from the IWPR office in North Ossetia was politically motivated
Alan Tskhurbaev, editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) for Northern Caucasus told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the political pretext of confiscation of equipment from the IWPR's office for Northern Caucasus.
"We had a meeting with journalists, a small roundtable in our office. We just started talking, when several persons entered, presented themselves to be employees of the UBEP (Unit for fighting economic crime). They asked journalists to show their passports (some of them failed to have passports on them), and began checking documents. They insisted that it was not a search. They told us that under their operative data our organization worked illegally in the territory of Russia, without due registration. This was the reason.
They turned everything upside down here, studied the computer, found some documents, and said that they would study them. There were no legal documents there. The essence of their claims is unclear," Alan Tskhurbaev said.
The organization works in Northern Caucasus on the basis of a labour contract of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. "Should there be any claim on tax payment, it's unclear as well, since we work for half a year only," Alan Tskhurbaev has continued.
"We have a weekly edition, and every week we publish materials from Northern Caucasus. I think that the case has political pretext, that is, what refers to parliamentary elections on December 2, we wrote the truth about them. I relate the events with the forthcoming presidential election. Pressure on independent media is a usual thing on the eve of elections, there is nothing unexpected in it. Most likely, we'll curtail our activities, we cannot work in such conditions," he said.
Author: Emma Marzoyeva, CK correspondent
