Glasnost Defense Foundation is a
non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
with the stated goals of the defense of
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
s,
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
, and
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. Its president is Alexei Simonov, a member of the
Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...
and the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights.
Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF) was organized on June 6, 1991, by
Yegor Yakovlev
Yegor Vladimirovich Yakovlev (Russian: Егор Владимирович Яковлев; 14 March 1930 – 18 September 2005) was one of the founders of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin's policy of ''glasnost'', and one of the most respec ...
, Vladimir Molchanov, Igor Golembiovsky, Mark Rozovsky,
Elem Klimov
Elem Germanovich Klimov (russian: link=no, Элем Германович Климов; 9 July 1933 – 26 October 2003) was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker. He studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, and was married to film dire ...
,
Aleksei German and other prominent Russian
filmmakers
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a Film, motion picture is #Production, produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through scr ...
and
journalists
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
. It provides legal help to journalists in conflict situations, supports the families of dead journalists and records individual cases of journalist's rights violations in Russia in collaboration with
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
and
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
.
Reports
The list of criminal cases compiled by the Glasnost Defense Foundation in 2006 represents 1,345 conflicts including 9 killed and 69
assault
An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...
ed journalists.
[GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST, 2006](_blank)
[Summaries of assaults in 2006 (Russian)](_blank)
The report includes assaults unrelated to the journalists' professional duties.[Summaries of murders in 2006 (Russian)](_blank)
The report includes murders unrelated to the journalists' professional duties. In 2005, the list of all recorded cases includes 6
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
s, 63
assault
An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...
s, 12
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s of editorial offices, 23 cases of
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
, 42 criminal prosecutions, 11 illegal
layoff
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
s, 47
arrest
An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
s, 382
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
s, 233 cases of
obstruction
Obstruction may refer to:
Places
* Obstruction Island, in Washington state
* Obstruction Islands, east of New Guinea
Medicine
* Obstructive jaundice
* Obstructive sleep apnea
* Airway obstruction, a respiratory problem
** Recurrent airway obst ...
, 23 closings of editorial offices by authorities, 10
eviction
Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgage ...
s, 28
confiscation
Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, o ...
s of printed production, 23 cases of stopping
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
, 38 refusals to distribute or print production, 25 acts of
intimidation
Intimidation is to "make timid or make fearful"; or to induce fear. This includes intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort such as humiliation, embarrassment, inferiority, limited freedom, etc and the victi ...
, and 344 other violations of Russian journalist's right
Structure
The Glasnost Foundation is a registered NGO with over 30 regional and volunteer centers in the Russian Federation.
It is a member of the
International Freedom of Expression Exchange
IFEX, formerly International Freedom of Expression Exchange, is a global network of 124 independent non-governmental organisations that work at a local, national, regional, or international level to defend and promote freedom of expression as a ...
.
It works in close collaboration with
Reporters without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
,
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
,
International PEN
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...
,
Memorial society
Memorial ( rus, Мемориал, p=mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ) is an international human rights organisation, founded in Russia during the fall of the Soviet Union to study and examine the human rights violations and other crimes committed under Joseph ...
, and other human rights organizations. It also works with the
Russian PEN Club and the journalism faculty of
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
.
The Foundation also receives financial support from the
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...
, the
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an organization in the United States that was founded in 1983 for promoting democracy in other countries by promoting political and economic institutions such as political groups, trade unions, ...
, the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow.
In November 2015, the
Russian Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (russian: Министе́рство юсти́ции Росси́йской Федера́ции, Миню́ст Росси́и) is a ministry of the Government of Russia responsible for the lega ...
designated Glasnost Defence Foundation a "
foreign agent
A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic missio ...
" NGO, drawing criticism from the
OSCE
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
and the
President's Human Rights Council.
See also
*
Glasnost
''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
*
Human rights in Russia
Human rights in Russia have routinely been criticized by international organizations and independent domestic media outlets. Some of the most commonly cited violations include deaths in custody, the widespread and systematic use of torture by s ...
*
Media freedom in Russia
Media freedom in Russia concerns both the ability of directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies and the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media of Russia inclu ...
References
External links
Official site of GDF (Russian){{Authority control
Human rights organizations based in Russia
Russian journalism organizations
Freedom of expression organizations
Foundations based in Russia
Non-profit organizations listed in Russia as foreign agents