Capt the Russian media is under Putin's control.Well if your Russian it's a whole lot better than some criminal (Gusinsky & Berezovsky) control which is really under American and western influence.We have seen how your media manipulated the Kosovo thing and don't for a minute think thaat Russians want tha tkind of trash reporting for them.This is the last time Iwill adress that subject,as any one that is rational could have figured it out in a heartbeat.Gusinsky has been caught in his criminal activities and all this media and anti-semitism is a way of deflecting the truth.

IGOR, Need I say any more on the subject?

‘We’re going to lose press freedom’ here

A TV IMAGE shows military journalist Grigory Pasko behind bars in July 1999 in a Vladivostok courtroom. The FSB says that he leaked state secrets to Japan. [photo: AP]


In the 1990s, development of an independent media was seen as the main success of Russia’s political transformation. The state monopoly on media ownership ended, and journalists were given freedom to criticize the authorities as never before.

The 1992 Law on Mass Media and the Constitution, adopted in 1993, guaranteed freedom of the press and prohibited censorship. Nevertheless, some topics in the Russian press remain taboo. For example, a journalist who dares to report on environmental problems or criticize the military can expect several forms of reprisals.

That was the case for Grigory Pasko from Vladivostok – a naval officer and a military reporter with Boyevaya Vakhta, who was arrested in 1997 for a series of articles on environmental hazards caused by Russia's nuclear submarine fleet.

The Federal Security Service (FSB), the domestic successor to the KGB, accused Pasko of high treason and of revealing state secrets to Japanese agents. The journalist was held in preventive detention for 20 months and sentenced to three years in prison for "abuse of office."

Pasko was freed last year under an amnesty law. But, at the end of September, the sentence, considered "too lenient," was appealed, and Pasko's case will be reopened.

• ‘Surprised’

"I'm surprised at this kind of reaction," Pasko said in an interview at the Russian Pen Center, a writers' organization. "This means that I could be sent to prison again, now for a longer time. The situation reminds me of 1937 Stalinist repression."

Since Pasko's case, articles about Russia's environmental woes have nearly disappeared. "In the Vladivostok area, you don't have journalists covering that topic. After my experience, people are simply scared," he said.

Pasko described control on journalists now, under new Russian President Vladimir Putin, as "tougher."

"The KGB has come into power and is forming a state inside the state. I'm sure that very soon the law on mass media will be changed. We're going to lose press freedom; there will be censorship again. I'm not optimistic about the democratic future of our country," Pasko said.

He explained that to accuse a journalist of spying is a very convenient option for FSB authorities. On the one hand, they can silence an upsetting voice and, on the other, the arrest of a spy means a promotion in rank for the officer himself.

The independent Moscow weekly Versya also fell into the FSB's clutches after it published information and snapshots about the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine and articles alleging corruption in the Rostov Prosecutor's Office.

Dmitry Filimonov, the paper's investigative stories editor, said the FSB is trying to prove that the snapshots are top-secret and wants to find out the paper's sources. Some weeks ago, officers seized Filimonov's computer, which the journalist claims contained files with documents about corruption within the FSB and the names of the paper's informers.

"Versya journalists have already spent 22 hours being questioned by FSB officers," Filimonov said.

According to the Glasnost Defense Foundation and the Russia Journalists' Union, FSB officers are violating Articles 41 and 49 of the Law on Mass Media, where it is written that information gathered by journalists is strictly confidential.

Filimonov said authorities are now trying to file criminal charges against the paper in an effort to silence the publication of threatening articles, under the pretext that it has disclosed "state secrets."

• ‘Too much’ info

"A month ago, President Putin summoned the director of the FSB and complained that the media were getting too much information about government structures and that there were too many reports on the malfunctioning of these structures. So the FSB director was asked to look carefully into the matter. I think that our paper was one of the first rings of the chain," Filimonov said.

Another taboo topic in the Russian media is narcotics. Lev Levenson, a journalist and a legal expert from the Human Rights Institute, said that an amendment to the Law on Mass Media was approved last summer forbidding some information concerning narcotics to be published.

Levenson underlined that the limitations are so broad that any article on the topic is subject to prosecution.

• ‘Cannot publish’

"You cannot publish articles on the way drugs are used, the way they are spread, where they are sold, etc. You cannot even use the distinction of hard and soft drugs because in this way you give the view that dangerous drugs exist. A paper publishing this kind of information can be sanctioned, and even shut down," Levenson said.

IGOR, WHAT GIVES, NO USC UP TODAY? MISS ALL THE BRAIN SURGEONS.

L'men, where did they get the bio info on you?

Your making lunch sound like we're going on a date. You want me to not only pick you up but also the tab and you suggest where we're going? FORGET IT, are you gone in the head or what? Only if you have tits, wear a dress and whisper in my ear will that happen. lol

CAP'N:

oh puh-LEEZE...

all i did was extrapolate on your line

"lunch, are you buying?"
===
the phrase "let's do lunch", in contemporary vernacular, is just some bullsh*t kinda cliche.
nothing, heh, expected to happen.
==

ps> y'know, i like women so much, i only fool around with _them_.

L"men, I know that, just shedding a little humor. Speaking of eating, gotta get ready, been invited to a pre Super Bowl dinner bash. Guess what? Being picked up by a lady friend. NYUK, NYUK. Gotta luv this country. Catch ya.

Capt I notice that the women are always picking you up.Do you not own a car or you have lost your license? As far as Versya's problems go I too would wonder where they obtained satellite photos as they certainly don't have their own satellite in space now do they,and since it is a sensitive investigation that is still going on I would be concerned where they got the pictures from.

HAGUE TRIBUNAL CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE LEAVES BELGRADE HUMILIATED. IT SERVES HER RIGHT

Carla del Ponte is the Chief Prosecutor at the Internal Penal Court based in Hague, Netherlands. As such, one assumes that she is a woman who possesses at least a reasonable degree of intelligence. Why she went to Belgrade to demand the handing over of citizens in full exercise of their constitutional rights in their own country, after having spoken to the press about going to Belgrade with arrest warrants, even though the climate in Yugoslavia was against such an attitude, defies logic.
Evidently and immediately, the response from President Vojislav Kostunica was clear - del Ponte was trying to destabilise Yugoslavia. "If you want to destabilise the situation in this country, you should do the same as Carla Del Ponte (requesting the handing over of ex-President Milosevic).”
The Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Goran Svilanovic, told Mrs. del Ponte that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has the means necessary to perform justice within its borders and that there is no desire whatsoever in Belgrade to extradite any Yugoslav citizen for trial in the Netherlands.
"I told her that the government's official position is that the trials should take place in the territory of our own country. Our people must trust those responsible to apply justice," Mr. Svilanovic declared to the press.
After her meeting, Carla del Ponte was received with extreme hostility by a group of Yugoslav nationals, eggs and stones being thrown at her car, such was the hatred that she generated. One might add: what did she expect? Depleted uranium?
A leader of the association of Serbs who disappeared in Kosovo, Ranko Djinovic, also had an audience with Ms. del Ponte. During this meeting, "we discussed legal questions and drew del Ponte's attention towards the actions of the UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, Kosovo Liberation Army in Albanian), later transformed into the civil protection force TMK, which are the authors of crimes against humanity and as a consequence, a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural genocide,” declared Mr. Djinovic.
Ms. del Ponte's actions in recent weeks and her pathetic, ludicrous figure in Belgrade show us that she is either deaf, or stupid. One thing is certain: she understands ZERO about the Balkans. Her attitude is typical of that misguided group of revengeful, fascist, power-freaks who mistakenly assume that they have any control over world public opinion.
Such failures exist in many countries which at present feel that the sun shines out of their national banners. Their ignorance and cultural nullity is almost tangible, so blatant it is. Even those of us who actually know the Balkans first hand and who have been there, never purport to dictate our outside rules on a people who have spent thousands of years to become an example of human excellence. Leave the Balkans people alone and they will again live in peace and harmony.
One last point. Ms. Del Ponte is from Switzerland, the land of the eternal accusations of collaboration with the Fascist Nazi regime of Hitler. It has even been stated that much of the gold in certain Swiss banks comes from melted-down remnants of this metal from the teeth of Jews slaughtered in the concentration camps. Now that everyone is deciding to go mad about "justice" and "human rights," maybe some court in some distant, foreign land, which has nothing to do with Switzerland or the Swiss, could bring a case against Switzerland in a pseudo-International Penal Court, whatever that means. Or what about NATO? Or is the legal profession no longer impartial? - contemplates our correspondent Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey reporting from Lisbon.

* Delenne, blow it out your arsch
This anal subject tradition of Yours includes smelling of it too!?

* CAPT AMERICA.
The "Running Man" style? LOL.
Suits You.

Chorny Volk,
* Gusinsky and Berezovsky.
I don't like Gussinsky at all. There's something repelling about him. And I, so far, trust Stepasshin.
Berezovsky is "likable". There is something "caring" inside him. I still laugh at his "My Christian duty is to build a mosque for those Moslems" (yep, he is a Christian by faith, though, eternally Jewish by Halacha.).
In both cases, I believe, a thorough investigation is due, and not only on them, but on all those involved in "restructuring-rethieving" of Russia. By investigation I mean the work, that the Stepashin crew is doing. The problem, Chorny Volk, is that (and You forget it, no offence), the Russian legislation of that time did not cover "anti-trust", "Federal Exchange" etc. things, and a person, though a criminal, can hardly be held accountable for what was actually not restricted then by law. Thanks to Gorby & Co there had been a lot of "perestroyka" blah-blah and little actual work done.

* TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS ISRAELIE GOVERNMENT IS ORDERING THE ATROCITIES TO BE COMMITTED.
Truth of the matter is that, the 2 idiots who started this informer thing, are now replaced by a third one CAPT AMERICA.

All those Arab shmocks, settled in the US and Europe, said nothing against and supported the pro-Moslem Clinton Balkan adventure, that didn't have a UN mandate and was out of the NATO Charter provisions, and, altogether, don't waste time to drum-up an "innocent" theme, to recall the existence of the UN, HRW, ICRC, BBC, when their terrorist buddies here get "Me a.s a-fryin', oh, momma!"

Informer,
There has never been such a thing as press freedom in Russia. So how do want to loose it?

"The problem, Chorny Volk, is that (and You forget it, no offence), the Russian legislation of that time did not cover "anti-trust", "Federal Exchange" etc. things, and a person, though a criminal, can hardly be held accountable for what was actually not restricted then by law. Thanks to Gorby & Co there had been a lot of "perestroyka" blah-blah and little actual work done. "

In Russia more than anywhere else you can manipulate the law as you please. It can be done for the worst as well as for the best. So be it for the right cause. Poeple won't be discontent if, despite a lack of legislation, the oligarches will be given tough jail sentences and fined billions $.
They are indirectely responsible for instance, of the energy shortage leaving poeple without central heating in the Siberian winter.
Russia can do one thing, a first step, for moral sake, crack down on the oligarches.

Agreed 100% Fred.