"Caucasian Knot" receives "black mark" from Chechnya's authorities

The "Caucasian Knot" was involved into participation in the action entitled "President of the Chechen Republic as Mirrored by Media" and was awarded the "Black Galosh", having failed to score enough "positive materials on the activities of the leadership of the Chechen Republic."

The action was intended "to draw the attention of leading Russian periodicals to the positive processes underway in the Chechen Republic" and referred to the materials published by 537 Russian media in the period from July 1 to September 30, 2008. It was initiated by the Information-Analytical Department of the President and Government of the Chechen Republic.

"The accelerated revival of the region is in progress not only due to mutual understanding of the Republic's leadership and citizens, but also due to creation by mass media of a positive information background," the press service of the President of Chechnya has stated when announcing the list of the media treated as winners by the count of "positive and objective" materials on the activities of Chechen leaders.

In particular, the action resulted in choosing "the absolute winner by the number of positive publications about the leaders of the Republic" (IA Regions.ru) and defined leaders in nominations "Objectivity in covering activities of the leadership of the Chechen Republic", "Initiation in media of positive informational occasions about the leadership of the Chechen Republic", "Best series of analytical publications", "Best series of humanistic publications", and the "Black Galosh". The latter was awarded to the "Caucasian Knot": "references to anonymous sources", "deliberate regular distortion of information" and "initiation of the 'canard' about an attempt on the President of Chechnya".

The statement of the press service of the President of Chechnya runs, in particular, that the author of the material about the attempt on Kadyrov in Tsentaroy village, published by the "Caucasian Knot" on July 28, "did not even try to recheck the information", supported by an informed source in the Republic's power agencies. At the same time, the information about the attempt on the President of Chechnya in Gudermes, which was reported on the same day, a couple of hours after the "Caucasian Knot", with reference to a source in the "Sever" (North) battalion, by the Regnum Agency correspondent, has not prevented the organizers of the action from awarding this media with the honourable 2nd place in the nomination "Objectivity in covering activities of the leadership of the Chechen Republic".

In those days, publications on the topic of July's attempt on Ramzan Kadyrov appeared also in the pages of such editions like "Gazeta.Ru", "Lenta.Ru" and NEWSru.com. On July 30, this information was the topic of one of Radio Liberty's programmes, the stenograph of which can be found in this Radio's website under the title "Ramzan Kadyrov's popularity goes down".

The material about the attempt appeared also in the pages of the "Novaya Gazeta" (No. 57, August 7, 2008) in the article by the well-known Russian journalist and political analyst Yulia Latynina "Who shot at Ramzan Kadyrov. Attempt forbidden to talk about".

"Judging by the most believable statements, Kadyrov talked loud voice to the nephew of one of his closest power agents [...], and then shooting began. In was the uncle who blocked Kadyrov's body from the nephew. Some people even assert that Kadyrov was wounded; it is visible, they say, that he slightly limps, and his shoulder is too motionless," Ms Latynina wrote.

"It's also clear why the rumours about the attempt are strictly banned," the expert further noted. "Not just 'federals', but even people from other villages are asked not to interfere: the 'investigation' is over, the verdict passed and executed."

Let us note here that not for the first time the "Caucasian Knot" materials are the object of tough criticism by Chechen officials. Thus, this January Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman in Chechnya, stated that the website had placed information about the Ombudsman's institute in the Chechen Republic, which "is an evident demonstration of absolute ignorance or deliberate dissemination of false information, absence of elementary journalistic ethics and at least superficial verification of the broadcast information." However, in fact the complaint was about an inexact naming of the post of the official, vested with the duty to defend human rights in Chechnya.

Let us also note here that shortly before the summing up of the above action, there was a telephone conversation between the head of the press service of the President and Government of Chechnya and one of employees of the "Caucasian Knot" editorial board. During this conversation, the press service spokesman several times expressed his negative altitude to the character and orientation of the "Caucasian Knot" materials, which cover the activities and initiatives of the leadership of the Chechen Republic.

In Chechnya, examples are known, when disagreement of NGO leaders with the position of the Republic's leadership had negative consequences for these organizations. Thus, for example, last December the Information Centre of the Union of Non-Governmental Organizations (UNGO) had to move its office out of the Republic's House of Press after the conflict of the head of the UNGO's Information Centre Taisa Isaeva with the bosses of the House. According to UNGO employees, the reasons of the eviction were Ms Isaeva's refusal to obey to the requirement to wear a headscarf and discontent of the Minister of Press and Information of Chechnya with the character of the materials of the UNGO's Information Centre, which "gave negative coverage of events in the Republic."

This June, power agents of Chechnya detained four employees of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" in the Urus-Martan District, who photographed the building, where, in the opinion of human rights activists, kidnapped people were illegally kept. The human rights activists were then interrogated by several persons who refused to present themselves. According to the detainees, during the interrogation they were told that they wrote "only in the negative" about the Republic and "worked for those bearded guys", while the interrogation itself passed without an advocate and was accompanied by intimidation and threats. Meanwhile, the Ombudsman in Chechnya Nurdi Nukhazhiev, when making his comments on the incident, accused the human rights activists themselves and criticized their "work methods".