Kommersant owner Usmanov says he will not revise top managers' dismissal
MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - Alisher Usmanov, the principal shareholder of Kommersant Publishing House, is certain that he made the right decision in dismissing a number of the company's top managers and is ready to meet with the journalists who have signed a letter in their defense.
"I believe I have made the right decision, and I do not intend to reverse it," Usmanov told Interfax on Wednesday.
"Emotionally, I can understand the journalists who have spoken in support of the fired top managers. The signatories of the open letter are professionals and well-known names, who have worked for Kommersant Publishing House for years," Usmanov said.
"I would like to explain my position once again: Kommersant Vlast is a respectable, independent sociopolitical publication, which enjoys authority and influence on public opinion. But, in its last issues, the authors crossed the line and violated elementary ethical standards, which are common in a decent society," he said.
"The matter is not about persecuting journalists on political or other grounds," Usmanov said. "I, as the publication's owner, have never given any pretext for this, and I am not going to seek excuses," he said.
"The Kommersant Publishing House's journalists have expressed and will express their position freely, but this needs to be done in a correct form that does not insult anyone's dignity," he said.
"In addition, to better understand each other, I am going to meet with all the signatories that would like this in the near future," Usmanov said.
A number of Kommersant employees had earlier publicized an open letter protesting against the holding management's decision to fire Kommersant Vlast Editor-in-Chief Maxim Kovalsky.
"The Vlast magazine's editor-in-chief, Maxim Kovalsky, was fired on December 13 for publishing a photograph of a voting ballot with an obscene message addressed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin written on it. We, Kommersant Publishing House journalists, protest this decision," the letter says.
"The obscene text did not belong to the magazine, the editorial office, or any of the authors," the letter says.
"This was a photograph reflecting the way some voters behaved in the elections. Judging by the rally on Bolotnaya Square, which was attended by several dozens of thousands of people, such attitudes are quite representative in Russian society to inform the readers about this," the letter authors say.
They said they viewed Kovalsky's dismissal "as an intimidation action aimed at preventing any critical remarks addressed to Putin, even in an indirect form, such as the publication of photographs of texts referring to him without admiration."
