Russian Media Holding Management Fired over Election Coverage

The owner of the most influential Russian media holding Kommersant, Alisher Usmanov, fired the CEO of the holding Andrey Galiev and the chief editor of the Kommerant-Vlast' weekly Maxim Kovalsky. According to Usmanov, some recently published materials violated journalism ethics and "border on hooliganism.” Although Usmanov did not specify the offending materials, apparently he referred to an article published in Kommersant-Vlast' on voting in the Russian embassy in London for the recent parliamentary elections. According to the article, the local electoral commission committed only several minor violations, including invaliding ballots for the Yabloko party because of “a message addressed personally to the Prime Minister of Russia” which one voter added to the ballot. The article carried a photo of the ballot bearing an obscene variation on “Putin, go to hell!” The caption said: "A correctly completed ballot that was found invalid." The CEO of another group entity, Kommersant Publishing House, Demian Kudriavtsev, admitted that the publication was in violation of “professional journalism standards and legislation of the Russian Federation” and submitted a voluntary resignation letter.

http://www.gazeta.ru/news/lastnews/2011/12/13/n_2133038.shtml
http://ria.ru/media/20111213/515530601.html
http://kommersant.ru/doc/1832739?stamp=634593707323589121 (article; photo removed)

(photo edited)