H. E. Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
The Kremlin
Moscow
Russian Federation

Via fax: +7-095-206-5173 / 206-6277

Vienna, 10 July 2003

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 115 countries, is deeply concerned about the bill titled “On Amendments and Addenda Brought into Certain Legislative Acts,” which was passed on June 18 and June 25 by the Duma and the Federation Council, respectively.

According to information provided to IPI, this bill, currently waiting for Your Excellency’s assent, seeks to strengthen state regulation over independent media outlets, particularly during their coverage of election campaigns.

As Chairman of the Central Electoral Committee, Alexander Veshnyakov, has noted in the online daily Gazeta.ru, the main purpose of the bill is to minimise the use of dirty campaign techniques in future elections, in particular, the use of “Black PR” which blighted the 1999 parliamentary elections.

While “Black PR”, bribing journalists to write negative articles about political opponents, is a pervasive problem in Russia and a product of the poor salaries paid to journalists, the primary target of the present bill is the mass media rather than the people who offer them bribes. Since “Black PR” reflects a lack of transparency in campaign finance in Russia, a far more appropriate measure to address this problem would be campaign finance reform rather than greater media regulation.

Journalists, politicians, and academics have already condemned this bill which could seriously limit media reporting during elections. The bill’s vague language grants the Central Electoral Committee, the Russian Media Ministry, as well as regional electoral commissions the authority to control media content. IPI believes that granting excessive and arbitrary power to these authorities to close media outlets during election campaigns will not resolve the problem of “Black PR” and will adversely affect Russia’s already poor press freedom record by denying voters a plurality of information and opinions about candidates.

With the above in mind, IPI calls on you to delay the passage of the bill and to work more closely with press freedom and mass media organisations based in Russia to formulate more realistic and effective alternatives to the bill.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director