Posted on 08/02/2005 3:55:07 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper
MOSCOW -- Russia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will not renew permission for ABC-TV to operate in the country after the network broadcast an interview with a notorious Chechen warlord.
In a statement, the ministry said ABC would be considered "undesirable" by all Russian state agencies because of an interview with Shamil Basayev, which was broadcast last week.
The ministry called the broadcast a "clear fact supporting the propaganda of terrorism" and said it contained "direct vocal calls for violence against Russian citizens."
As a result, the ministry said it decided "not to renew the accreditations of employees of this television company after they expire."
The Foreign Ministry is the main government agency authorizing foreign media outlets to work in Russia, and the decision effectively now bars ABC from working here.
ABC News had immediate comment.
On Friday, the Foreign Ministry summoned a top U.S. diplomat to protest the interview with Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for some of Russia's most terrifying terrorist attacks, including last year's hostage seizure at the school in Beslan, which ended in the deaths of more than 330 children and adults.
In the interview conducted by Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky, Basayev, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, said he was plotting more attacks.
Among other attacks, Basayev has been linked to a 2002 hostage-taking assault on a Moscow theater that left 170 people dead, a 2003 suicide attack in the Moscow subway that killed 41 people, and a 2003 double suicide bombing at a Moscow rock concert that killed 17 people.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said he was barring military personnel from contact with ABC and said the ministry now considered the network "persona non grata."
Good.
I wish we could kick Peter Jennings out of the US.
Leni
HA HA HA, well said
I enjoy freedom of the press also, but in this case, they did the right thing in sacking a media organization that is part of the same Liberal media organ that coddles these thugs and criminals, by granting them interviews to use as a pulpit or plant from which to direct their troops to more attacks. To me, although an interview piece, this is no different than Al-Jazeera playing one of OBL's latest video or audio tapes.
Thamks
Leni
The Clintoon News Network and Saddam come to mind.
LVM
Ted Koppel's fault.
I can't help but thinking that if this were the old Soviet Union, the interviewer, the producer, and the cameraman would be sitting in some cells in the Lubyanka sweating it out like Judy Miller. But the KGB was a different animal than the DC Police.
My guess is that one of them would have coughed up the terrorist's location within about an hour of the beginning of the interrogation. And then, they would have either been deported immediately or given a spell in the Gulag as an enemy of the state.
If the FCC had any balls, ABC, CBS and NBC would have lost their licenses a long time ago, for knowingly airing treason, slander and lies.
Good. ABC shouldn't be soap box to this barbarian. I say jail the news crew until Basayev is dead or captured.
Now, if the US would only do the same.
The best way to end terrorism is to kill terrorists.
"The ministry called the broadcast a "clear fact supporting the propaganda of terrorism" and said it contained "direct vocal calls for violence against Russian citizens."
Too bad we can't do the same thing. There is no doubt in my mind that some of the propaganda from some in our msn and some of our dem senators (newsweek and senator durbin come to mind) have been a detriment to our war efforts and have cost American lives.
I wouldn't be upset at all if the Russians had put these people behind bars. I think they're getting off to lightly myself.
He is responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of children at Breslan. He is a monster. If ABC can't see that, they don't belong.
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