One of Russia's leading independent voices on television was silenced on Wednesday when the channel NTV fired the host of a current affairs program over an interview with the widow of a former Chechen leader.
Leonid Parfyonov, the host of Namedni (The Other Day) whose hour-long weekly broadcast was the only televised scrutiny to which the Kremlin was still subjected, is one of Russia's best-known journalists. His dismissal was a "revolutionary and momentous" step against press freedoms in Russia, and an "order from a police state," said the Union of Journalists and the Russian Pen Center.
Parfyonov was forced to drop a five-and-a-half-minute segment from the program in which he interviewed the widow of a former Chechen rebel leader who was assassinated earlier this year in Qatar.
Namedni interviewed Malika Yandarbiyev, whose husband, Zelimkhan, Russia had accused of being a member of al-Qaeda. The government claimed he helped organize the mass hostage-taking incident when the Moscow Nord Ost theater was seized by Chechen gunmen in October 2002.
Yandarbiyev was killed when a bomb blew up his car in Doha on Feb. 13. Two Russian agents are on trial in Doha for his murder and face the death penalty if convicted.
The segment was broadcast in Siberia, yet withdrawn, reportedly at the request of the security services before Namedni was broadcast in Moscow.
Parfyonov gave a copy of the order he received to drop the interview to the newspaper Kommersant. Kommersant also received a transcript of the interview in which Yandarbiyev describes looking one of the accused Russians in the eye in court and says her husband wanted to die fighting in Chechnya. Their son, Daud, 13, was injured in the blast.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced its fury at Doha and is engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to free its agents.
A statement on NTV's Web site said Parfyonov was sacked because he had broken his contract of employment which obliged him "to support the politics of the company's leadership."
Nikolai Senkevich, NTV's director, said Parfyonov was "one of the most talented journalists in Russia," but this was not the first incident of disobedience. Parfyonov, told Ekho Moskvi radio he had officially been fired to "cut costs," despite repeated NTV statements that he had violated his contract by revealing internal secrets.
He said NTV managers persuaded him to hold the exclusive interview up for a week, but foreign media began asking if they could have a copy of the tape and when it would be broadcast.
"I can't be guided by motives other than distributing information. If we have an exclusive and I am ordered not to put it on air, but also protect those who prevent this ... you have to understand my position."
Asked how he had continued working amid NTV's restrictive conditions, he said: "Maybe it was impossible, but sometimes you sit in an airless room and just resist. Or you sit in the gate at the airport, hoping that soon you will take off."
Namedi was the last remaining sign of NTV's former life as the Kremlin's key critic, particularly over the decade-long Chechen war.
The channel was bought by the state gas giant Gazprom in 2001 and has since begun, like all other channels, to toe the Kremlin line.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
RSS