Guardian reporter allowed to return

Luke Harding, correspondent of the British daily The Guardian who was deported from Russia on 5 February, returned to his job in Moscow on 12 February after being issued a new visa by the government. But the paper said today its expiry date was not indicated and that he could be forced to leave the country again on 31 May, the date his old visa expires. The Russian authorities said he had been expelled because of bureaucratic violations. It was the first time a Western journalist had been deported since 1989 and provoked international reaction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 February 2011 Guardian correspondent’s expulsion seen as warning to all foreign reporters Reporters Without Borders is deeply disturbed by Russia’s expulsion of Luke Harding, The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, regarding it as an explicit and unacceptable warning to all foreign correspondents based in the country. Harding was denied entry on his return to Moscow on 5 February after a visit to the United Kingdom, and was put on a flight back to London. “This is a heavy-handed attempt to get journalists to censor themselves and to prevent impartial coverage of what is happening in Russia,” the press freedom organization said. Harding’s expulsion is all the more alarming as he is veteran foreign correspondent who has been based in Russia for years and had the required accreditation and visa. Rescinding a visa in an arbitrary manner marks a further step away from respect for the rule of law. It also heightens concern about the growing pressure on Russian civil society as the country approaches the 2012 president election in a climate of economic and social tension – tension that its taking its toll on journalists, especially local ones, as seen in last November’s extremely violent attack on Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin. Denying a Moscow-based correspondent reentry after a trip abroad is a rarely-used procedure but there are precedents. Natalia Morar, a Moldovan journalist who worked in Moscow for the New Times (Novoye Vremya) magazine, suffered this fate in December 2007. Angus Roxburgh of the Sunday Times was the victim of a quid-pro-quo expulsion after the British government headed by Margaret Thatcher expelled 11 suspected Soviet spies in 1989. Russia is ranked 140th out of 178 countries in the 2010 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Violence against journalists, impunity for those who physically attack or murder journalists and the glaring lack of media diversity, especially in the broadcast media, pose the main threats to media freedom.