Russia
Olympic host city lacking independent voicePosted Mar 12 2010
Sochi, host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, lacks independent media, according to Reporters Without Borders.
As the report outlines, registered media sell their “political loyalty” for “certain financial advantages and tax concessions.” Vadim Belyayev, the former director of the state broadcaster GTRK Sochi, says, “There are practically no independent media left in the Krasnodar region.”
The only newspapers that appear to retain an independent voice are local tabloids, such as Komsomolskaya Pravda na Kubane, the Krasnodarski Kurier and the Novaya Gazeta Kubani. Other news organizations depend on local authorities, the political proponents of the Kremlin.
Voices that do not join the choir suffer libel accusations. The Moscow Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations contends that libel cases have become an instrument of silencing non-abiding journalists.
Svetlana Kravchenko, a newspaper reporter for the recently closed Delovoy Sochi, has been charged with libel for reporting on a controversial case about the cemetery graves. The defendant received a fine of $2,048.