License to Pre-Emptively Censor?

(From The Moscow Times)

A few days ago I ran into a good friend who works as a journalist. When she caught my eye she looked around furtively, then moved in close and whispered: "What I'm about to do is completely illegal. If anyone finds out about it, we could both face severe punishment." With that, she pulled a glossy magazine called Kompromat.ru from her handbag and passed it to me. On the cover was a photograph of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the headline: "Who is mister X?" This was the same issue that lies at the heart of a lawsuit brought against the magazine by five Yukos executives, including Khodorkovsky and his former first deputy, Leonid Nevzlin.

I won't bore you with all the details of the case. If you're interested, you'll find everything you need on the Internet at www.flb.ru. The Yukos executives have charged the magazine with defamation in the issue devoted to the company's history and current operations. When the suit was filed, the plaintiffs requested that the magazine's entire print run -- 10,000 copies -- be impounded and that "third parties" be prohibited from distributing the issue. The court granted their request before it had even considered the merits of the case. If that's not pre-emptive censorship, or prior restraint to use the legal term, then I don't know what is.

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We look forward to hearing from you.Email the Opinion Page EditorThe court's decision was unprecedented. Even the "sinister" government of Vladimir Putin never pre-empted the judicial process this blatantly. Back in 2000 and 2001, when the government was trying to strangle the old NTV, it never jumped the gun by stepping in to silence the constant criticism of the regime broadcast by Yevgeny Kiselyov and his colleagues before the courts had ruled.