His Excellency President Vladimir Putin
Moscow, Russia
Email: agromov@prpress.gov.ru

13 July 2006

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at proposed legislation that provides for up to three years in jail for journalists who criticise public officials and categorises them as “extremists”.

According to reports, on 28 June the lower house of parliament approved amendments to the Law on Fighting Extremist Activity in a first reading. If enacted, the law would broaden the definition of extremism to include media criticism of public officials and provide for imprisonment of up to three years for journalists and the suspension or closure of their publication. If the bill is passed in two further readings, it would be submitted to the upper house.

Amendments to Article 1 of the law broaden the definition of extremist activity to include “public slander directed toward figures fulfilling the state duties of the Russian Federation”, as well as “interfering with the legal duties of organs of state authorities”.

We are seriously concerned that this legislation, if enacted, would further undermine the role of the press to inform the public and lead to even greater self-censorship than already exists. We are also concerned that the vague language used would allow public officials to interpret the law as they please and effectively target their critics.

We respectfully remind you that you told our Congress that “our people made a conscious choice in favour of democracy. Freedom of the media remains one of the most important guarantees of this choice”.

We respectfully remind you that, if passed, this law would constitute a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that the proposed legislation is withdrawn and to ensure that in future your country fully observes international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.