Vedomosti journalists complain about pro-Kremlin censorship

Journalists at Vedomosti, one of Russia’s most prominent business publications, on Thursday accused their editor of imposing stifling pro-Kremlin censorship, reports Anton Zverev and Andrew Osborn of Reuters.

Zverev and Osborn report, “In a blunt editorial article published on the newspaper’s website, journalists complained that Acting Editor-in-Chief Andrei Shmarov had banned the publication of opinion polls carried out by a research firm that has irritated the Kremlin.

“A day earlier, the newspaper’s media reporter, Kseniya Boletskaya, had publicly complained that Shmarov had banned negative coverage of President Vladimir Putin’s plans to change the constitution to allow him to extend his rule until 2036.

“Anyone who flouted the ban would be fired, she said.

“‘Changes of this kind undermine trust in the publication,’ the editorial article said on Thursday, referring to the alleged ban on publishing offending opinion polls.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.