Dagestani Newspaper Founder in Rare Probe.

(From The Moscow Times)

Investigators in Dagestan have opened an unprecedented criminal investigation into allegations that the founder of a local newspaper was interfering in the work of his own journalists.

Prosecutors suspect Rizvan Rizvanov, founder of the Nastoyashoye Vremya weekly, of illegally influencing newspaper policy, and he faces up to two years in prison if charged and convicted, a local investigator said Tuesday.

One of the country's main organizations monitoring press freedoms said that while owners of media outlets often interfere with editorial policy, they don't end up being investigated.

"From October to March, Rizvanov forced journalists to publish information that he preferred and to remove from publication information that displeased him," said Murad Aligalbatsev, a senior investigator in the Kirovsky district of the republic's capital, Makhachkala.

In one concrete instance in October, Rizvanov gave editors a list of regional journalists whose articles he did not want in the paper, said Sergei Rasulov, a former editor at Nastoyashoye Vremya.

There were nine names on the list, including the late head of state-television company GTRK Dagestan, Gadzhi Abashilov, and Channel One television reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, who were both killed in March in two separate attacks, Rasulov said.