Fergie's Tech Blog

Kommersant Targeted by Smear Campaign and Hacker Attacks

Via Reporters Sans Frontières.

Reporters Without Borders today voiced its support for the Moscow-based daily Kommersant, which has been the target of a smear campaign and hacker attacks on its website for the past two weeks. The newspapers has filed a complaint with the Moscow prosecutor’s office.

“We urge the authorities to carry out a swift and thorough investigation to identify those responsible this smear campaign,” the press freedom organisation said. “It is an insult to the work of this newspaper’s journalists, whom we fully support in this case. The accusations make it even harder for them to do their job. The public must be able to have access to the reports in Kommersant, which is one of the country’s few remaining independent news media.”

Kommersant has demonstrated a degree of independence despite being owned by the gas giant Gazprom, in which the Kremlin is the leading shareholder. It is often criticised by the government and its journalists are regularly threatened.

posted by Fergie @ 3/14/2008 12:45:00 PM