Unlike Western Correspondents, Russians Admit Reporting Lies on Chechnya

"In the northern Caucasus one can see in Chechnya the most extreme level of censorship -- and the biggest number of newspapers," Grigory Shvedov, chief editor of the online daily Caucasian Knot told the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS).

"There is no such thing as freedom of press in the region", he said.

Other Russian journalists confirm that there is a total information blockade in the Caucasus.

"For those seeking to report on events in the region there are multiple difficulties," Amnesty's Europe and Central Asian programme researcher Victoria Webb told IPS, stressing the fear "of being caught up in the violence"

"The media are severely hampered, not only by the lack of infrastructure but by a number of factors stemming from the climate of fear that reigns in Chechnya," executive member of the International Federation for Human Rights Tatyana Lokshina told IPS by email.

A journalist working for a state media agency put it like this: "The state policy dictates reporting.... Today we're allowed to report critically on various social issues, but we must avoid the 'ugly issues'." By 'ugly issues' she meant Russian war crimes in Chechnya, corruption and the problem of impunity of Russian terrorists in the occupied Caucasus.

Many media representatives report a substantial degree of self-censorship as a consequence of internal pressure (from editors or owners) and external pressure such as fear of the authorities and security forces.

In this connection, it is not quite clear whom the correspondents of Western news media in Moscow such as Reuters, AP, AFP, DPA, Europa Press etc are all afraid of while sending their pro-Russian, biased and unbalanced dispatches,  being under protection of their embassies. They all report blank Russian lies about Mujahideen "mass surrounding" to Russian invaders, "Chechen war being over" and give absolutely false and unreliable figures on the nature and extent of Russian casualties in Jihad in the Caucasus. They never report tallies of Russian invaders' losses supplied by the Chechen Military Command.