PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2019) The Reporters Without Border non-government group expressed on Wednesday concern over dismissal and resignations of journalists from the Russian Kommersant business daily.
On Monday, two Kommersant journalists, Ivan Safronov and Maxim Ivanov, were dismissed from the news outlet, reportedly at the request of Kommersant's shareholder, billionaire Alisher Usmanov, for publishing a report in April about Russian parliamentary speaker Valentina Matviyenko potentially being replaced. That day, the entire political news section staff also submitted their resignations.
"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is dismayed by the latest blow to editorial independence in Russia, in which two journalists at the leading Moscow business daily Kommersant were fired, 11 of their colleagues resigned in protest and then more than 200 of the newspaper's journalists issued a joint warning that its readers would now be denied unbiased coverage," Reporters Without Border said in a statement.
Both Usmanov and Matviyenko said that they had nothing to do with the situation in Kommersant.
