(May 27, 2008) Internews Network welcomes the news that a Russian court has deemed unconstitutional the criminal charges brought against the former leader of a Russian media NGO.

Manana Aslamazyan, former head of the Russian-based Educated Media Foundation (EMF), an organization that was the successor to Internews Russia, won a major appeal in the country’s constitutional court on Tuesday. Aslamazyan had faced what observers had seen as trumped-up charges of smuggling when she was stopped while entering the country with cash that just barely exceeded the legal limit without declaring it.

“This is a welcome signal from Russia, which has exhibited tremendous hostility toward independent media in recent years,” said David Hoffman, president of the California-based Internews Network, the world’s leading media development organization. “We hope this heralds a time of greater respect for media freedoms in Russia, and we share in Manana’s joy at this stage today after her long, hard road.”

Returning to Moscow from a private trip to Paris in January 2007, Aslamazyan was stopped while going through customs and accused of not filling out a declaration form for 9,550 Euros and 5,130 Rubles. It is legally allowed to bring $10,000 into the country without a declaration form. While usually such oversights are dealt with by a $100 fine, a criminal charge of smuggling was brought against Aslamazyan.

In April 2007, more than a dozen agents of Russia’s economic crimes police raided the EMF office in Moscow, seizing all computers and servers, as well as financial and administrative files. The seizure was supposedly carried out in connection with the criminal charges brought against Aslamazyan. More than 2,000 Russian journalists signed an open letter to then-President Vladimir Putin on her behalf.

Aslamazyan, who relocated to Paris, faced a possible five-year prison sentence.

"Of course I'm happy that the Constitutional Court issued this decision and that our efforts were not in vain—I'm happy, but not 100 percent,” Aslamazyan said today. “There's still another criminal case that was opened against the Educated Media Foundation itself, alleging that we had not paid all our taxes. This case is just as unfair as the first one but we still have to prove that. I continue to believe that common sense will eventually prevail if we stubbornly press for the truth."

Her lawyer, Viktor Parshutkin, said the ruling means the charge must be dropped and said that the judges "have sent a signal to society, to the authorities: let's build life in this country a little differently. Enough persecuting people, enough repression, enough imprisoning people for no reason."

Internews Network had honored Aslamazyan one year ago at its Media Leadership Awards in Washington, D.C. for her decades of dedicated work on improving media professionalism and protection of media rights in Russia.

Her widely respected organization had trained thousands of journalists across Russia. The EMF was the legal successor of Internews Russia, which had received funding from American and European sources, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. The EMF has no legal ties to Internews Network.

This year’s Internews Media Leadership Awards, which will take place June 5, will honor several people including: international journalist Mariane Pearl, the widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; businessman Ted Leonsis, whose documentary films serve to educate and change perceptions; and courageous reporters from Ukraine, Kenya and Vietnam.

CONTACT:

John Boit jboit (at) melwoodglobal (dot) com | (202) 468-9413

Background and articles on the closure of Educated Media Foundation and the charges against Manana Aslamazyan

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