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April 25, 2008

Profiles in courage

Who was the one member of Russia's legislature to oppose Vladimir Putin's latest move to crush the press? From the AP story:

Russia's lower house of parliament has voted for new restrictions on the news media after a Moscow newspaper reported that President Vladimir Putin had divorced his wife and planned to marry a champion gymnast.

The State Duma voted 339-1 on Friday to allow authorities to suspend and close down media outlets for libel and slander following the furor over the story, which was denied by both Putin and the former gymnast.

Critics say Putin has presided over a steady rollback of post-Soviet media and political freedoms. Under his rule, all major national television networks have come under the control of the Kremlin or its allies and Russia's print media have also experienced growing official pressure.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 10:23 AM | | Comments (0)
        

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About Jay Hancock
Jay Hancock has been a financial columnist for The Baltimore Sun since 2001. He has also been The Baltimore Sun's diplomatic correspondent in Washington and its chief economics writer. Before moving to Baltimore in 1994 he worked for The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk and The Daily Press of Newport News.

His columns appear Tuesdays and Sundays.
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