THIS IS PRICELESS...of course they do not want to give journalists guns, because the KGB does not want them to be shooting back at them. The suicides of Russian journalists have been through the roof since Putin took over. How many people do you know go food shopping and then jump off their roof with their groceries in their hands? NONE...
MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow police chief said on Friday that he was against granting journalists permission to carry arms.
"I don't think we need to give journalists weapons. Law enforcement agencies must ensure their safety," Vladimir Pronin told RIA Novosti.
His comments came after the co-owner of Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper said the paper planned to submit applications to the authorities for arms permits for its staff.
"If you are unable to ensure our security, let our journalists carry firearms," Alexander Lebedev said.
Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova was shot dead in the center of Moscow on Monday by a gunman who also killed Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who had taken on a number of controversial cases in Russia.
A number of other Novaya Gazeta journalists have also been murdered in recent years, including Anna Politkovskaya, the Kremlin critic whose investigations of human rights abuses by federal troops in Chechnya had won her acclaim in the West. Politkovskaya was gunned down in her apartment building in 2006.
"In the event of journalists being threatened with danger, we have a scheme under which their safety can be assured," the police chief added. "The more weapons there are, the more disorder there is."
Russia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organization, has said that 21 journalists were murdered in the country between 2000 and 2007.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090123/119771277.html
MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow police chief said on Friday that he was against granting journalists permission to carry arms.
"I don't think we need to give journalists weapons. Law enforcement agencies must ensure their safety," Vladimir Pronin told RIA Novosti.
His comments came after the co-owner of Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper said the paper planned to submit applications to the authorities for arms permits for its staff.
"If you are unable to ensure our security, let our journalists carry firearms," Alexander Lebedev said.
Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova was shot dead in the center of Moscow on Monday by a gunman who also killed Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who had taken on a number of controversial cases in Russia.
A number of other Novaya Gazeta journalists have also been murdered in recent years, including Anna Politkovskaya, the Kremlin critic whose investigations of human rights abuses by federal troops in Chechnya had won her acclaim in the West. Politkovskaya was gunned down in her apartment building in 2006.
"In the event of journalists being threatened with danger, we have a scheme under which their safety can be assured," the police chief added. "The more weapons there are, the more disorder there is."
Russia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organization, has said that 21 journalists were murdered in the country between 2000 and 2007.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090123/119771277.html
