Waynakh Online

Top Menu

  • Archive Documents
  • Bookshelf
  • Chechen Culture
  • ECHR Cases
  • Gallery
  • Lyrics
  • Mp3
  • Poems
  • Videos

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Chechens
    • Who are the Chechens?
    • Tribal Unions and Clans
    • Religion
    • Famous Chechens
      • Chechen Academicians
      • Chechen Commanders
      • Chechen Litterateures
      • Chechen Musicians
      • Chechen Painters
      • Chechen Politicians
      • Chechen Presidents
      • Chechen Sports Men/Women
      • Names from Chechen History
  • Chechnya
    • Administrative Divisions
    • Maps
    • Geography
    • Constitution
    • Flag, Emblem and Anthem
    • Parliament
    • Presidents
    • Demographics
    • Economy
    • Human Rights Violations
    • Refugees
    • History
  • Chechen Language
    • Chechen Alphabet
    • Fairy Tales in Chechen Language (Mp3)
  • News
  • Articles
  • Interviews
  • Contact
  • Archive Documents
  • Bookshelf
  • Chechen Culture
  • ECHR Cases
  • Gallery
  • Lyrics
  • Mp3
  • Poems
  • Videos

logo

Waynakh Online

  • Home
  • Chechens
    • Who are the Chechens?
    • Tribal Unions and Clans
    • Religion
    • Famous Chechens
      • Chechen Academicians
      • Chechen Commanders
      • Chechen Litterateures
      • Chechen Musicians
      • Chechen Painters
      • Chechen Politicians
      • Chechen Presidents
      • Chechen Sports Men/Women
      • Names from Chechen History
  • Chechnya
    • Administrative Divisions
    • Maps
    • Geography
    • Constitution
    • Flag, Emblem and Anthem
    • Parliament
    • Presidents
    • Demographics
    • Economy
    • Human Rights Violations
    • Refugees
    • History
  • Chechen Language
    • Chechen Alphabet
    • Fairy Tales in Chechen Language (Mp3)
  • News
  • Articles
  • Interviews
  • Contact
News
Home›News›Chechen journalists, international journalists – Ramzan Kadyrov has silenced us all

Chechen journalists, international journalists – Ramzan Kadyrov has silenced us all

By admin
November 2, 2016
4749
0
Share:

Not making the “so-called” president angry is the main goal of Chechnya’s local media, an anonymous reporter explains to the British daily newspaper Guardian.

I changed my mind about helping foreign journalists report inside Chechnya when I witnessed a reporter’s abduction in the centre of the capital, Grozny.

It was the beginning of 2016 and a group of journalists with cameras, obviously not local, were going into a cafe just as I was leaving it. Suddenly, several men in civilian clothing began to attack them.

One woman was shouting that she was a journalist from Moscow. She was screaming her name but not a single person, including me, dared to approach the men, their guns visible underneath their black clothes.

The journalists were arrested, thrown into an unmarked car and driven away.

I realised then that even helping outsiders tell the story of what is going on inside Chechnya has serious consequences. Foreign reporters will do their job and leave. But if they write a story that is critical of the young president, Ramzan Kadyrov, or his government, the first thing the police will do is track down the locals who helped them.

As a result, the purpose of journalism has completely changed. I became a journalist three years ago, at a time when students at the Chechen State University were being taught that they must become “soldiers on the ideological front”.

We entered a world where the handful of media outlets allowed to operate produce nearly identical content, churning out “news” on the opening of a school or a milk factory, or the president holding a football match, or yet another VIP delegation from Moscow or some Arab country visiting the capital.

News editors now do not even look at material faintly critical of any government organisation. Simply suggesting a story on everyday problems encountered by people in Chechnya could attract suspicion from “true patriots”. The police could start monitoring your telephone calls and your Facebook, or you could be added to a blacklist. People who express an opinion different to that of the authorities are routinely subjected to public humiliation.

On Instagram, in articles for state newspapers including Groznyi-Inform, and in an interview with the state broadcaster, Grozny TV, Kadyrov and his staff have made intimidating statements about critical journalists, declaring them “traitors” and “enemies of the people” helping the west “wreak chaos in Russia”.

As a result, local media works according to one principle: “Do not to make Kadyrov angry.”

In this climate of fear and suspicion, the detention and beating of journalists no longer surprises locals. At the beginning of this year, a bus carrying a group of reporters and activists was attacked and burnt. Those responsible are yet to be found.

Two months later, a journalist for Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) was ambushed on his way from his village to Chechnya. Zhalaudi Geriev, 23, was dragged out of a shuttle bus and taken to a forest. The assailants pulled a plastic bag over his head and tortured him. They forced him to sign a confession that he had been carrying drugs, and he was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Geriev’s case is little mentioned in Grozny. The sentence was a warning to all doubters and dissenters, and it’s effective: today, I do not know a single journalist here who would agree to work on a story that was anything other than positive about life in post-war Chechnya.

Reporters are given an extra incentive to comply: during the annual TV industry party, Kadyrov gives out money, apartments, cars and other presents to dozens of journalists. For people whose salaries total between 10,000 and 25,000 roubles (£125 to £315), this is a significant gesture, and writers try to get noticed and impress the leadership by writing the best possible story about government policies.

It’s a simple system. Journalists, who have no hope of escaping the republic and fear being branded “America’s henchman”, know their job: to write exactly what Kadyrov wants.

Anonymous
10.10.2016 / Guardian

Previous Article

Meeting with Stanley Greene in Paris (Video)

Next Article

“Cursed those for seven generation, who love ...

Share:

Related articles More from author

  • News

    To be a Chechen Refugee in Turkey…

    November 27, 2010
    By admin
  • News

    Press Conference: Justice for Medet Onlu

    April 14, 2014
    By admin
  • News

    Chechen Family Faces Extradition from Germany

    February 8, 2013
    By admin
  • News

    Assassination Attempt or a Theatral Game? (Video)

    October 28, 2009
    By admin
  • News

    Extradited Chechen Asylum Seekers on Hunger Strike

    January 29, 2014
    By admin
  • News

    Alla Dudaeva: “The Court is Passing Them into the Hands of Executioners!”

    October 24, 2010
    By admin

Leave a reply

  • Lyrics

    Barkalla Xhuna Yoj – Valid Gadaev

  • Articles

    “It is More Horrible to Wait for Your Killers Than to be Killed!”

  • News

    Desperate Chechen Asylum Seeker Attempts Suicide

Our Website in Other Languages

                        

Latest Comments

  • Akiva Weinberger
    on
    July 7, 2024
    Can you provide an English translation please?

    Ghalghay kegiy nax – Loam

  • irsana
    on
    June 24, 2024
    @KAY Chechens don't exactly have tribes, only clans. Most clans nowadays belong to Tukkhums ('Tribal' Unions), ...

    Tribal Unions and Clans

  • Galnish
    on
    February 26, 2024
    No, we haven't always been muslims. The majority of our ancestors were pagans. The literature even ...

    Religion

  • Jorden
    on
    February 10, 2024
    Wow your from Bosnia and you support the real Chechens may Allah bless you I am ...

    Gakayev, The Enemy Kadyrov Needs

  • Vladan
    on
    January 6, 2024
    Do you know what is excettly size of Ickheria in constitution when they peoclaimed independence? ...

    Geography

Find us on Facebook

Categories

Archives

Search

Prime Minister Akhmed Zakayev’s Speech at the European Parliament

https://youtu.be/D8Fk6jq5E00
https://youtu.be/LRtf8UENmp8
https://youtu.be/0yiOJCJWZjU
https://youtu.be/o5oU3dXxgSU
https://youtu.be/iDCpqn62bVQ
https://youtu.be/eBaatZVQpQw

Our Partners

Chechenpress
Khaaman
Ichkeria Culture Center in Austria
Qaanuoyn Dosh
World Chechnya Day
Justice for Medet Önlü
Honorary Consulate of the ChRI in Turkey

We are at Instagram

Waynakh Online

Independent Chechen website that publishes news, articles, interviews, historical documents, literary works, photographs, music and videos.


                        

Last Publications

  • May 24, 2024

    The Naked King

  • March 16, 2020

    Prime Minister Zakayev’s Book Presented in London

  • February 3, 2020

    European Parliament Hosts a Conference Dedicated to Chechnya

  • October 19, 2019

    Akhmed Zakayev’s Book Presented in the House of Commons

  • August 11, 2019

    Subjugate or Exterminate!

Most commented

  • Articles

    Gakayev, The Enemy Kadyrov Needs

    By admin
    August 31, 2012
    11
  • Gallery

    Gallery of Abed Arslan

    By admin
    September 14, 2009
    10
  • Articles

    Sex Slavery and Death Await Women Seized by Kadyrov’s Bandits

    By admin
    August 16, 2011
    8
  • Famous Chechens

    Shamil Salmanovich Basayev

    By admin
    May 18, 2008
    6
  • Home
  • Contact
2000-2022 © Waynakh Online | Powered by Chechen Media