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TO NEWS AND INFORMATIONAL AGENCIES AND MASS MEDIA
FROM INDEX/DOSIE NA TSENZURU MAGAZINE (MOSCOW)
AND GLASNOST DEFENCE FOUNDATION (MOSCOW)
January 17
Today the magazine INDEX/DOSIE NA TSENZURU and GLASNOST DEFENCE FOUNDATION directed a letter to the High Commisionair for Human rights of the COUNCIL OF EUROPE, to the COUNCIL OF EUROPE and to the delegation of PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (See below.)
The letter shows how the Russian authorities succeded to organize informational support of military operation in Chechnya and gradually begins to use the totalitarian methods of leadership.
The authors of the letter summon the Council of Europe to use all available levers in order that the Russian leadership should return to the democratical principles of open society and keep the Human Rights.
TO: High Commisionair for Human rights of the COUNCIL OF EUROPE,
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
delegation of PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE.
FROM: magazine "Index/Dosie na tsenzuru" (Moscow)
Glasnost Defence foundation (Moscow)
January 17, 2000
Gentlemen,
We hereby turn to you for assistance because, in the first place, we are seriously concerned about the Russian Government's policy towards this country's citizens, and secondly, we do not see any force inside today's Russia that could effectively resist the dangerous practices of the Russian leadership.
On the pretext of facilitating the military operation in Chechnya, the Government of Russia has managed to effectively seal all information regarding its actions, plans, and real policy as a whole. Although the freedom of speech has not been abolished here so far, the Russian leadership's activities have been placed beyond the sphere of glasnost, into a sort of "black box". The Russian public, journalists and political scientists are facing the only option left to them - to guess what their leaders are up to, what drives their actions in real terms, and what consequences these actions are likely to entail. Adding to that the actual withdrawal of Russia's leadership from the sphere of the rule of law, one would be bound to conclude that the situation in Russia today is fraught with a very probable reversal to totalitarian rule.
Official information on the Government's performance has actually given way to official propaganda. With lack of official information, glasnost can no longer be regarded as democratic society's leverage designed to permanently return the top echelons to the principles of open policymaking under public control based on the criteria of compliance with the essential democratic norms. The judicial system, which has actually ceased controlling government activities, cannot perform as such leverage, either. If glasnost and law are used for purposes of regulating only citizens' relations, not the relations existing between the citizens, on the one hand, and the authorities, on the other, they cease being anything but decorative elements disguising a democracy's transformation into an autocracy. Even elections, viewed as the last resort of democracy, appear today to be unable to change the situation for the better because all the parties and associations which took part in the recent parliamentary election actually supported the authorities' policy of zero transparency in the area of information.
The magazine Index/Dosie drew the above conclusions after months of repeated attempts to get official information regarding the specific results of the war operation in Chechnya.
On September 29, the magazine Index/Dosie, acting in full compliance with Articles 38 and 39 of the Russian Federation Law on the Media, sent the Russian Premier Vladimir Putin an inquiry requesting truthful information about the number of casualties resulting from the military operation in Chechnya.
The Government's reply actually meant that official information was being denied.
The magazine then lodged a complaint with the Judicial Chamber for Information Disputes under the auspices of the RF President. On November 25, the Chamber
passed a decision that read: "We hereby acknowledge that the reply by A. Korotkov, head of the Government Information Department of the Apparatus of the Russian Federation Government (document # P-44-427 of October 7, 1999), to the September 29, 1999, letter from N. Nim, editor of the magazine 'Dosye na Tsenzuru', to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, was by all appearances an unmotivated denial of socially important information and a violation of the provisions of Article 40 of the Russian Federation Law on the Media".
Faced with such a decision, the Presidential Administration began preparations for the dismissal of the Judicial Chamber for Information Disputes under the auspices of the RF President.
Between December 6 and 14, the magazine sent Premier Vladimir Putin twelve more requests for details on the specific results of the war operation in Chechnya, focusing particularly on the number of casualties.
Having received no reply within the timeframe established under the law, the magazine turned to the Moscow Procurator's Office to file a lawsuit against V. Putin and his subordinate officials on charges mentioned in Article 237 of the RF Criminal Code ("Concealing information regarding circumstances that are dangerous to human life or health").
On December 28 and January 10, the magazine received two brief reply messages from the Russian Federation Government saying that they did not possess the requested information.
That was not merely a denial of socially significant information. It was acknowledgement of the fact that the Government, which directed the military operation in Chechnya, had no access to information that was essential for conducting the military operation with full responsibility.
This is a logical result of the information blockade to which Russia's leadership has subjected the citizens. If information capable of causing questions as to the correctness of the way the leaders run a country were concealed from the public, then sooner or later the leaders themselves would stop receiving such information. Lies of this kind can exist only in an environment where the state resorts to violence, and this violence, in its turn, generates further lies. That is how the mechanism of totalitarian rule gets started.
Gentlemen,
There is no organized public force in today's Russia that could effectively resist the increasingly totalitarian system of state government. You have the leverage to exert pressure on the Russian leaders with a view to convincing or compelling them to return to democracy - not verbally but in terms of the real policy they pursue. We urge you to do everything possible to facilitate such a return.
Naum Nim,
Editor-in-Chief,
Index/Dosie na Tsenzuru magazine
Phone/fax: (095) 201-5086; E-mail: index-dossier@polit.ru
Aleksei Simonov,
President
Glasnost Defence Foundation
APPENDIX
All the documents related to the case in question are available at our magazine's Web site at: The documents are:
1. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated September 29, 1999
2. Reply by Government Information Department Chief A. Korotkov (No. P44-427 of October 7, 1999)
3. Complaint to RF President's Judicial Chamber for Information Disputes, dated October 22, 1999
4. Judicial Chamber Decision No. 13 (176) of November 25, 1999
5. Reply by Government Information Department Chief A. Korotkov (No. P44-526 of November 30, 1999)
6. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated December 6, 1999
7. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated December 7, 1999
8. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated December 8, 1999
9. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated December 10, 1999
10. Message to RF Premier V. Putin dated December 14, 1999
11. Application to Moscow Procurator's Office for filing a lawsuit against V. Putin and his subordinates on charges mentioned in Article 237 of RF Criminal Code
12. Reply by Government Information Department Chief A. Korotkov (No. P44-562 of December 27, 1999)
13 Reply by Government Information Department Chief A. Korotkov (No. P44-1 of January 5, 2000).