Russia: European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia in media case
Text of press release by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on 20 May
New York, 20 May 2004: The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that Russian authorities used a politically
motivated criminal investigation in 2000 to try to take over the print and broadcast operations of Russian media mogul
Vladimir Gusinsky.
The Strasbourg, France-based court said that Russian authorities illegally harassed and arrested Gusinsky on charges
of fraud in June 2000 to pressure him to sell his controlling stake in the Media-Most company.
Media-Most owned the popular independent national television channel NTV, whose news and current affairs programs
regularly criticized government policies, particularly the war in Chechnya.
"During Mr Gusinsky's detention, the acting minister for press and mass communications had offered to drop
the criminal charges against the applicant if he would sell Media-Most to Gazprom [the state-controlled natural gas
monopoly] at a price to be determined by Gazprom," the seven judge panel wrote in their unanimous ruling.
The court ruled that Russia violated Gusinsky's right to liberty and security and instructed Russia to pay for
his 88,000 euro (105,600 dollars) legal expenses. The court rejected Gusinsky's request for 1.7m euro (2.1m
dollars) in damages.
Pavel Laptev, Russia's representative at the court, immediately condemned the ruling, calling it "defective
both in theory and in fact," the Russian news agency Interfax reported. Russia has three months to appeal the
ruling.
Gusinsky - who currently splits his time between Israel and the United States - filed the lawsuit against Russia with
the European Court for Human Rights in January 2001.
Background
Vladimir Putin's victory in the March 2000 presidential elections was followed by an alarming assault on press
freedom, including a series of orchestrated legal cases against powerful media barons who had gained enormous wealth and
influence during the 1990s.
Gusinsky was arrested in June 2000, charged with embezzling state property, and released three days later after
agreeing to sell Media-Most, which controlled NTV, Ekho Moskvy radio, the daily newspaper Segodnya, and the weekly news
magazine Itogi.
The federal Prosecutor General's Office dropped the charges in July 2000 but then announced a new investigation
after Gusinsky fled to Spain and refused to sell Media-Most, saying he had previously agreed to do so under duress.
Media-Most's main creditor, Gazprom, continued to pursue Media-Most through Russia's politicized courts and
forcibly occupied NTV headquarters in April 2001 to install a new management team.
Gazprom swiftly closed two Media-Most outlets known for criticizing the government - Segodnya and Itogi - but
retained the management of Media-Most's Ekho Moskvy, formerly the country's largest privately held news radio
station.
Though media analysts say that NTV has retained some of its independent voice under the new management, the
station's anti-Kremlin tone has softened significantly.
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