“Draft” became unprintable – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

In Dagestan, the paper version of the Chernovik weekly has ceased to be published. This was announced the day before by the publisher Magdy Kamalov and the editor-in-chief Mairbek Agayev. The decision to limit itself to the website and Telegram channel, they said, was made due to “unprecedented pressure” from republican officials and security forces. According to journalists, Chernovik survived by selling the printed version – and is now on the verge of closing. The administration of the head of the republic does not comment on the editorial statements.

At a press conference in Makhachkala, publisher Magdy Kamalov said: “pressure on the newspaper” intensified in the fall of 2021, after Sergey Melikov has been approved as head of Dagestan. Mr. Kamalov said that “Chernovik” was printed in a local printing house. When its director was threatened with a criminal case due to cooperation with the editorial office, he was forced to break the contract with Chernovik. According to the publisher, the editors appealed to the arbitration court – they advised “somehow to agree.”

“Chernovik” found a printing house in Stavropol. “We managed to print three issues of the newspaper there, after which a call from Dagestan followed. This is how the director of the printing house explained the decision to refuse us,” the publisher said at a press conference. Then “Chernovik” returned to the republic and placed an order with the printing house of the local Press House.

Mr. Kamalov explained that the editors tried to keep the paper version until the last moment – after all, the publication is financed only through the sale of circulation and advertising revenue.

But advertisers, Magdi Kamalov said, were put under pressure by officials, demanding to refuse cooperation with the publication. And “Dagpechat”, according to him, refused to accept the newspaper for sale through its kiosks.

For two months, the director of the printing house “withstood the pressure” of the security forces and officials, the publisher said. Then he was threatened to “raise the issue of reviewing the privatization of the land plot on which the printing house is located.” And “Chernovik” was again refused.

The next point in the expanding publishing geography of Chernovik was Rostov-on-Don. The local printing house printed two issues – and again, “everything was decided by a call,” Mr. Kamalov said. After that, the newspaper’s management was forced to apologize to readers and stop publishing the paper version. The newspaper’s employees are ready to work for the website and the Telegram channel, but the publication will not be able to support the staff in the absence of income from sales and advertising. “I was offered funding by local oligarchs,” Magdi Kamalov told Kommersant. “But this option does not suit me. I don’t want to be dependent on them and narrow the zone of criticism.”

The editors believe that the main reason for pressure on the newspaper is the “critical orientation” of publications. “We write about theft, corruption and nepotism. We write about the non-execution of the consolidated budget – this year, twenty unused billion will return to the federal center. And this is precisely what our authorities do not like,” says Magdi Kamalov. “But our position is simple: a thief should be in prison. Our officials cannot understand simple things in any way – you can’t steal and you can’t accept gifts. ” Meanwhile, the leaders of Chernovik recalled that three employees of the publication in different years became laureates of the Russian government prize precisely for the fight against corruption.

The editor-in-chief Mairbek Agayev said that the publication was “constantly under pressure”. However, earlier “the authorities acted, albeit harshly, but within the framework of the law: our circulation was simply bought up in the printing house.”

“The current generation of officials wants to close down the newspaper, solving their own problems and presenting their actions as state policy,” Mr. Agaev said. The editors intend to appeal to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the OFAS: “And then we’ll see.” Kommersant asked the administration of the leadership of Dagestan to comment on the statements of the publisher and editor-in-chief of Chernovik, but have not yet received a response.

Julia Rybina, Makhachkala