By Country / Russia
Call For Russian Journalists To Avoid Inciting Racism
May 06, 2006
Racist graffiti in St. Petersburg, December, 2005 (AFP)
Thirty-three editors and journalists, including the heads of the main news agencies and Russian state television, released a statement saying that it's crucial to avoid artificially dividing countries into ethnic groups, or creating negative generalizations about minorities.
The statement comes a day after rights group Amnesty International sharply criticized Russian authorities for failing to prevent racially motivated attacks.
Russia has seen a series of attacks on foreigners, ethnic minorities, and asylum seekers. In the latest incident thought to be a racially motivated killing, a Russian citizen of Tajik origin was found dead in his car in St. Petersburg today, with extremist slogans and the Nazi swastika symbol written on the car's exterior.