Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

Journalists in PrisonMoldova and Romania service of the U.S. government-funded RadioFree Europe/Radio Liberty.A group of armed agents from PMR’s Ministry of State Security(MGB) arrested Vardanian at his home in Tiraspol and placed him inan agency detention facility, according to press reports and CPJinterviews. MGB agents searched the journalist’s home, confiscatingcomputers, audio- and video-recording equipment, reporter’s notebooks,and the family’s bank and credit cards. The MGB deniedVardanian access to a lawyer after his arrest, according to pressreports.Puls Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Kavruk told Deutsche Welle in April thatthe MGB in Tiraspol had been pressuring Vardanian to stop workingfor Chisinau media outlets. While living in Tiraspol, Vardanian hadcommuted daily to the Moldovan capital of Chisinau for work.In May, PMR authorities released to regional television a video showingVardanian pleading guilty to charges of spying for Moldovanauthorities; he was also shown to say he was being treated well incustody. Immediately after the video was released, Vardanian’s wifeand colleagues sounded an alarm, telling reporters that Vardanianappeared to be acting unnaturally and under duress. Authorities disclosedno evidence in support of the charges.The Transdniester region broke away from Moldova proper in 1990,declaring independence unilaterally. The self-proclaimed PMR is notrecognized by the international community.Russia: 1imprisoned: march 22, 2006Boris Stomakhin, Radikalnaya PolitikaStomakhin, editor of the small-circulation monthly newspaperRadikalnaya Politika (Radical Politics), was imprisoned on chargesof inciting ethnic hatred and making public calls to extremist activity.The Butyrsky District Court of Moscow sentenced him to five yearsbehind bars in November 2006. The journalist, his family, and his defenseteam said his imprisonment was in retaliation for his sharp criticismof the Kremlin’s policies in the southern republic of Chechnya.In her ruling, Judge Lyubov Ishmuratova said Stomakhin’s articles “approvedChechen terrorists’ criminal actions aimed at the annihilationof the Russian people as an ethnic group.” The ruling quoted him as397