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"Kommersant. Publishing House"
April, 25th 2008
Canadian journalist Jane Armstrong, a correspondent for The Globe and Mail newspaper, has been forcibly expelled from Chechnya. The formal reason for her expulsion was the absence of a special permit to work in a zone where a counterterrorism operation is taking place. Armstrong was taken into custody on her third day in Chechnya by the local department of the Federal Migration Service (Russian abbreviation UFMS) while eating breakfast in her hotel. According to Chechen journalist and human rights activist Kheda Saratova, Armstrong was questioned by FSB officers who suspected her of being a spy while she was detained for eight hours in the Zavodskoi police station.
Armstrong, who was accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry, intended to write about Chechen customs and had been present at a wedding in the mountainous Shatoi District. “The journalist did not get approval for her movements from the competent organs, as she was obliged to do under the work rules for representatives of the foreign press in a zone of counterterrorist operations,” a spokesman for the Chechen Republic Interior Ministry explained to Kommersant. Also, the spokesman noted, her accreditation lacked a special note saying that she was traveling to Chechnya. “We think she did that on purpose to avoid receiving permission from the competent organs for her route,” the ministry spokesman said.
Armstrong was fined 3000 rubles. In addition, Chechen officials took away her press accreditation and warned her not to return to Chechnya. In 2006, a group of Austrian journalists were similarly expelled from the republic.
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