MOSCOW - Russian journalists were dismayed and worried by the announcement on Tuesday that the Russian government was barring ABC News from working here in retaliation for the television channel’s broadcast of an interview with Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader and a self-proclaimed terrorist.
“This is some kind of paranoia,” said Oleg Panfilov, Director of the Center for Journalists in Extreme Situations in a telephone interview.
“To punish a network for airing an interview with a person that the Russian authorities have not managed to capture is evidently a form of revenge for their own lack of success.” Russian television companies have no qualms about showing al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden, Abu Masab al-Zarqawi or other terrorists, he pointed
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