Russian rights activists denounced on Tuesday a plan to create a “roster of media that write lies,” ordered by the governor of Chuvashia last week over criticism of the ruling United Russia party.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion but to accuse the press and judge them on your own ideas about truth and lies is a very bad sign,” said Pavel Gusev, a member of the Public Chamber.
The advisory body will discuss the controversial proposal by governor Mikhail Ignatyev at a special hearing next Tuesday.
Ignatyev’s list is an attempt to pressure advertisers into avoiding independent media, Chuvashian rights activist Alexei Glukhov said, Gazeta.ru reported.
“The roster will be limited to media giving negative evaluations of the authorities - while such media still exist,” Glukhov said.
Ignatyev ordered the regional culture department in the republic, located in the Volga federal district, to compile the controversial list by either April 25 or May 25.
“Lies reported by journalists are a destructive force,” he said last week. “When they called one party ‘the party of crooks and thieves,’ people reacted to such things.”
The derisive slogan was widely applied to United Russia by the opposition during the parliamentary elections campaign, which the party carried in December amid allegations of massive vote fraud. United Russia won 43 percent of the vote in Chuvashia, compared to the national average of 49 percent.
Ignatyev said the roster will be “our public evaluation” of the media on the list.
“Lies” is not a legal term in Russia and slander was decriminalized in 2011. Russian legislation, however, allows civil lawsuits to be taken in defamation cases.
