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#24 - JRL 2006-129 - JRL Home Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 00:10:37 +0200 Subject: re Item from the St Petersburg Times/ JRL#128 From: Larry Kilman <lkilman@wan.asso.fr> Dear Mr Johnson, I have been informed that you distributed an article from the St Petersburg Time to your listserve about the visa issue concerning our World Newspaper Congress in Moscow. I have seriously misquoted in the article -- in fact I said exactly the opposite of what the reporter had me saying. The newspaper has agreed to run a clarification tommorrow. Below you will find my note to the journalist, and an e-mail sent by Mr Timothy Balding, CEO of the World Association of Newspapers, in response to an earlier article by the same reporter. Best regards, --------- Dear Martin, I am very disappointed in the article your wrote < I am terribly misquoted, and I would ask for a correction to be made. I clearly said to you that NO visa had been rejected for political reasons, as clearly stated in Timothy Balding¹s e-mail. Yet you have me saying I¹m ³sorry² that some journalists could not attend the event. I said no such thing. No foreign journalists have been prevented from attending the WAN events. Nor did I say we ³would have acted² had we known. I referred you to Mr Balding¹s e-mail and his statement that journalists applying to the Congress would have their applications directed to the proper authorities. You¹ve also paraphrased the reasons I told you that the events were being held in Moscow, and put them in direct quotes < I did not say what you have been saying and it doesn¹t even sound like me. And you exaggerated what I said about the number of people who opposed coming to Russia < as the massive participation shows, most people have no objection to coming at all. This story is terribly misleading. I would be grateful if you could let me see the correction when it is made. --------- Dear Mr Burlund, Larry Kilman has forwarded me your mail below. I'm very surprised by what you have written. I personally worked hard on Vibeke Sperling's case more than a year ago, in close liaison with her. I received personal assurances from the Russian government that she would not have any problem obtaining a visa for Moscow. She agreed to alert me as soon as she made another visa application, so I could ensure that the right authorities would be aware of this commitment and approve her application. I haven't heard a word from Vibeke since June 2005 and certainly not that she had applied for a visa and had had any problems. WAN made it absolutely clear to the Russian authorities from the start of planning for our events, more than two years ago, that the refusal of any visa on political or 'security' grounds might be a case for the cancellation of the event. We have not heard of a single such case related to our conference. With kind regards, Timothy Balding ---------- From: "Martin Burlund" <burlund@mail.djh.dk>
Dear Larry Kilman The name of the journalist is Vibeke Sperling' and the paper was Politiken.
She can be reached at +45 33471742 . Vibeke Sperling is a veteran correspondent, who worked as a journalist in Russia and the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. She does not concur WAN's decision to hold WNC in a country, where press freedom is largely oppressed. "I find it worrying that this conference is held in Moscow," Sperling said Wednesday and added a small hope that the conference might be a push forward for press freedom in Russia. Sperling has since October 2003 been denied visa to Russia and will not be able to attend WNC, even though WAN and the management of her newspaper, Danish daily "Politiken", have pressured Russian authorities to grant her a visa. "The answer from the Russian embassy (in Copenhagen) was 'no reason what so ever' as of granting me a visa," Sperling recollected. She says she have never experienced a more closed Russia than today, counting the Soviet Union. "Back then (in Soviet times) I waited for a long time in order to get a visa, but I always got it," she said, and told that no reason was given not to let her into the country. Sperling herself guesses that it has something to do with her coverage of Chechnya and Russian politicians handling of themes as press freedom. Sperling does not believe that the Russian press is going to be "more free". Questioned about the future, she is not too hopeful that her own visa will be granted in near future. "If we look back in Russia's history it is well known that the leaders hands on the power to new leaders, who resembles them, and that the people of Russia will have no real choice in future elections, so I do not think that the press freedom will improve much," Sperling said on telephone from Denmark. -------- See you in Moscow Once again thank you Sincerely,
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