RSF/IFEX: RSF has called for the immediate release of independent
journalist Mikhail Afanassiev, who was arrested as he prepared to travel to
Moscow to receive the Glasnost Defence Foundation’s Sakharov Prize.(10-DEC-04).
Afanassiev was picked up on 9 December 2004 on a defamation charge as he was
leaving a hospital in Abakan, in the autonomous region of Hakasia.
Supposed to recieve the Sakharov Prize
“We call for the immediate release of this journalist, who was arrested as
he was about to travel to Moscow to receive the Sakharov Prize, awarded to
the most courageous journalists,” RSF said.Local police cited Article 129 of the Criminal Code on defamation, in relation to an article carried on 6 December on the website http://www.nacbez.ru, entitled, “A Gang of Hunters Have Taken Power”. “There can be no justification for holding a journalist in custody when he
is only doing his job,” the organisation said in a letter to Hakasia Chief
Prosecutor Alexander Beloshitsky.
Outspoken journalist
Afanassiev?s main work is for the Moscow media. He is known for his
investigative reporting and his courage in speaking out on sensitive
subjects. He has already had five defamation charges laid against him since
the beginning of the year, three of which were subsequently dropped
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontiè²¥s (RSF), Paris
