Murmansk Mayor dismissed newspaper editor
City Mayor of Murmansk Sergey Subbotin has fired editor of Vecherny Murmansk, a local newpaper owned by the city administration.
The dismissal comes after newspaper editor Natalia Cherviakova accused the mayor of censorship and threats.
According to Cherviakova, her paper had planned to publish a story on April 6 where the town authorities were being accused for not fulfilling the government’s orders by failing to re-calculate the citizens’ payments for heating in 2009. The day before the story was to be published, the editor was called to the mayor’s office, where she reportedly was told by Subbotin not to print the story. When she refused to obey, the mayor allegedly threatened both her and her family.
Subbotin later called the allegations “lies”. He also reported the editor to the police for insults.
Yury Obuchov is appointed new editor of the newspaper, MBnews.ru reports.
Subbotin earlier this week sought support from the city parliament in the issue, but the local legislators did not want Cherviakova to be fired, the news site informs
Vecherny Murmansk is one of the biggest newspaper in Murmansk Oblast.
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