MOSCOW, March 27 (Itar-Tass) - Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets Pavel Gusev has been re-elected chairman of the Moscow Journalists Union. He has occupied the post since 1991. Gusev was re-elected by the 7th Congress of the organization on Wednesday.
"I wish to thank you for your support and re-electing me. We'll be able to do much for our trade. Many shortcomings and sore spots in the work have been noted; we have to eliminate them. We've got work to do," Gusev said.
The Congress elected Gusev's deputies: Itar-Tass deputy director general Mikhail Gusman, editor-in-chief of the Rossiiskaya Gazeta Vladislav Fronin, editor-in-chief of the Moskovskaya Pravda Shod Muladzhanov, Dmitry Biryukov of the Seven Days Publishing House, editor-in-chief of the Vechernayya Moskva Alexander Kupriyanov and Lyudmila Shcherbina. Thirty-five persons were elected to the SZhM presidium, including Viktor Loshak, Tatana Paukhova, Nikolai Svanidze and Oleg Poptsov.
Meanwhile, lawmaker Andrei Isayev said Gusev's election was an issue of the Journalists Union, in which outsiders should not interfere.
"Electing is the right of the Journalists Union; they proceed from their logic," he told reporters.
When asked if he would follow Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's advice to take the conflict with Gusev to court, he said only the person whose rights had been violated could file a legal action. Isayev underlined that his opinion about the conflict remained unchanged.
Last week, the State Duma adopted a statement on inadmissibility of abuse of freedom of expression by the mass media. The document was voted for by the United Russia and Liberal Democratic Party factions. It addressed the spat between head of the parliament committee for labor and social policy Andrei Isayev and editor-in-chief of the Moskovsky Komsomolets Pavel Gusev.
The article titled "Political Prostitution Changes Gender" was carried by the newspaper and sparked uproar. It targeted three United Russia female lawmakers Irina Yarovaya, Olga Batalina and Yekaterina Lakhova.
The statement said the article "overstepped all thinkable boundaries of cynicism, partiality and ordinary boorishness."
Lawmakers demanded an apology from Gusev, saying he no longer could be head of the Union of Moscow Journalist and a Public Chamber member.
Liberal Democratic Party /LDPR/ leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky called for revoking the State Duma accreditation from the MK journalist, restructuring the newspaper and taking it away from Gusev.
Pavel Gusev said he had nothing to apologize for to the public because he had not insulted anybody.
"I'm not going to apologize to anybody; because I have not insulted anyone. It's Andrei Isayev who should apologize to journalists. I have nothing to apologize for," Gusev told Tass.
He had complained about Isayev's threats against journalists to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee. Isayev had said in his blog that the editor-in-chief and the author /of the article/ would "answer harshly."