ERR Journalist Denied Accreditation to Cover Russian Elections
An ERR correspondent said he and a colleague did not receive accreditation from the Russian central election committee, to cover the general elections in Estonia's large eastern neighbor over the weekend.
Krister Paris told uudised.err.ee before the elections that the move would likely block the Estonains from filming at election precincts.
Paris said up to a day before the elections, it seemed possible that the accreditation would be given as the required documents were in on time - more than a month ago.
"But today we were informed that they have not come back from review, which hints clearly that it was not planned to send them back from review as they did not lack for time," ha said on December 3.
Paris speculated that the point may be to ensure that any complaints or suspicions about ballot box stuffing are not captured on video.
He also noted that denying accreditation to ERR was a small fish compared to news that a court judgment had been handed down on independent election observers Golos in which they were accused of bias and attacks on the ruling party and fined.
Kristopher Rikken