Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov became a journalist for a day after the Chechen Journalists Union accepted him as an honorary member Wednesday. He was expelled the following day by the union's central secretariat, however, after it was determined that he was not an actual journalist.
Kadyrov, who has been credited by federal authorities with bringing order to this former separatist province, met Wednesday with representatives of local newspapers, radio and television stations. Chechnya's Minister for Press and Information, Shamsil Saraliyev, handed Kadyrov a membership card and commended him on his efforts in helping local journalists, RIA Novosti reported.
Kadyrov, in turn, called on journalists to be vigilant. "The authorities must always feel journalists breathing down their backs," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying at the ceremony. "Not a single shortcoming can go unnoticed by the media."
On Thursday, however, the Journalists Union announced that the secretariat had unanimously cancelled the decision of its Chechen branch to award Kadyrov membership, after determining that Kadyrov had never in fact worked as a journalist. The union cited article 4.1 of its statute, which says that members of the union can be "professionals whose work is involved in the media, as well as persons who study, research or teach journalism."
The Moscow News
