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Russia sets media guidelines after hostage siege
November 4, 2002
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia announced new guidelines for journalists Monday asking the media to do everything possible to starve militants of publicity during hostage seizures.
The press ministry issued the draft guidelines 10 days after a Chechen hostage siege in a Moscow theater came to a bloody end. It asked the media not to interview militants involved in such attacks or allow them airtime to voice their grievances.
"Saving people is more important than society's right to information," the ministry said in guidelines for covering emergencies.
The guidelines are not binding on the press, but were issued after the lower house of parliament passed tough new laws limiting how journalists write about militant groups.
The Kremlin has been angered by media reports suggesting it failed to pursue talks with the guerrillas before launching a raid which left 118 hostages and up to 50 rebels dead. The hostages were killed by a gas intended to knock out the rebels.
The guidelines did not say whether they were aimed at foreign journalists as well. The press ministry was not immediately available for comment.
The ministry urged journalists not to indulge in speculation or make their own analysis of such situations without "professional consultation" -- a euphemism for relying on the official version of events.
They also warned journalists that militant statements on television and radio could contain secret messages.
During the three-day siege which ended Oct. 26, authorities banned the NTV channel from publishing a statement from guerrilla leader Movsar Barayev.
Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said the guidelines could become the de-facto legal framework for journalists even though they were not legally enforceable.
Russia has had a patchy record on media freedom since President Vladimir Putin came to power. The few remaining private television channels were effectively neutered after they criticized the government.
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