Moscow: 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.
Five defamation charges
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 frontières (RSF), Paris.
