KRASNOYARSK -- A journalist and opposition activist in the eastern Russian region of Krasnoyarsk has been barred from appearing on a local television station, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Center-Krasnoyarsk television station officials told Andrei Skovorodnikov on July 28 that he would no longer be allowed on the channel because he had accepted a position in the opposition political movement Other Russia.
Since summer 2009, Skovorodnikov had been a regular guest on a weekly TV show on which 10 well-known people from different walks of life are given five minutes to state their views on a certain topic and answer various questions.
Many wondered how Skovorodnikov, who has been working in opposition parties for 10 years and had been a member of Eduard Limonov's banned National Bolshevik Party, was allowed to speak for the past year on TV, where opposition and antigovernment views are usually unwelcome and seldom heard.
Skovorodnikov had helped to organize protests by the opposition movement Strategy 31 in Krasnoyarsk. The movement tries to hold demonstrations in major cities on the last day of every month with 31 days in defense of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.
Center-Krasnoyarsk television station officials told Andrei Skovorodnikov on July 28 that he would no longer be allowed on the channel because he had accepted a position in the opposition political movement Other Russia.
Since summer 2009, Skovorodnikov had been a regular guest on a weekly TV show on which 10 well-known people from different walks of life are given five minutes to state their views on a certain topic and answer various questions.
Many wondered how Skovorodnikov, who has been working in opposition parties for 10 years and had been a member of Eduard Limonov's banned National Bolshevik Party, was allowed to speak for the past year on TV, where opposition and antigovernment views are usually unwelcome and seldom heard.
Skovorodnikov had helped to organize protests by the opposition movement Strategy 31 in Krasnoyarsk. The movement tries to hold demonstrations in major cities on the last day of every month with 31 days in defense of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.
