MOSCOW, March 16 (UPI) -- President Vladimir Putin won reelection under "conditions of extreme censorship," the head of Russia's journalists union has charged.
The Rosbalt news agency reported Tuesday Igor Yakovenko, general secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists made the charge at a Moscow press conference.
"The elections of 2004 in Russia were conducted under conditions of extreme censorship," Yakovenko said.
Coverage of Putin dominated the news on national television stations so much so, it amounted to "a violation of the principle of a level playing field regarding candidates' access to the mass media," he said.
Yakovenko also charged that presidential candidates Ivan Rybkin and Sergei Glazyev both suffered unfair limits in the TV news coverage they were given.
"We were confronted with direct censorship when the pre-election campaigning of Rybkin was restricted, and coverage of the Glazyev campaign was taken off the air on Channel 1 and RTR on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25," he said.
