Press ReleasesPress Release by the "Educated Media" Foundation (Legal Successor of “Internews”)April 26, 2006 Dear colleagues, In response to numerous inquiries with respect to recent events surrounding our organization, we would like to hereby inform you that, effective May 2, 2007, almost all of the organization’s employees will be taking their annual leave. This will be done in full compliance with relevant stipulations of the labor law. In addition to this, we have already taken some steps to provide for our own defense. The founders of the “Educated Media” Foundation have filed a motion with the Office of the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation and the Investigative Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation requesting that the seized originals of our organization’s financial and accounting documentation, as well as [other] information stored on electronic media, be returned. Besides, our founders have made appeals to the Public Chamber under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation and to Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Lukin. The appeals contain a petition [for these entities] to get involved and stop the persecution of our organization and its leader Ms. Manana Aslamazyan. The “Educated Media” Foundation has also filed a court complaint claiming that [recent] actions of the [assigned] investigative officer were unlawful and unjustified. We understand that consequent court proceedings may last a long time. We therefore regretfully inform you that, in order not to jeopardize the activities of our partners and colleagues, a number of previously announced activities had to be cancelled. 1. The following workshops have been cancelled:
2. The following remote education classes have been cancelled:
All prior advance payments made for services that have yet to be provided will be refunded. 3. The finals of the Russian National Competition among Regional TV Outlets “Time to Act” previously scheduled for June 3-7, 2007, have been cancelled. All participants are kindly requested to make no further submissions. All questions regarding training sessions should be directed to Ms. Margarita Kalyants at kalyants@o-media.ru . All questions regarding TV production should be directed to Ms. Marina Razorenova at razorenova@o-media.ru . All questions regarding the “News Factory” Project and “TV and Radio Atlas” should be directed to Mr. Dennis Shevchenko at shevchenko@o-media.ru . Dear colleagues, In the first several days following the suspension of our organization’s operations, we learned that many TV outlets and private citizens had spoken out in our support. They wrote petitions and collected signatures from supporters. We are certainly grateful to everyone for their support. We place great importance on the fact that we have a lot of friends, and it gives us pleasure to see that our friends appreciate the time they have spent with us at workshops, competitions and conferences and that they value our jointly accumulated experience and professional achievements. We remain hopeful that all of our partners clearly understand one thing. We have no ethical ground or moral authority for informing you of any ongoing initiatives in support of our organization, much less for giving you any advice on what you should or should not do under the circumstances. |
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