Russian journalist facing jail for insulting Putin

The US-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned at the prosecution of a Russian journalist who satirised President Putin's campaign to boost the birth rate. Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor-in-chief of a news website, Kursiv, is on trial for insulting the president in an article entitled "Putin as Russia's phallic symbol." Rakhmankovcould be sentenced to a year's "corrective labour." CPJ's executive director, Joel Simon, said: "It is outrageous... [to] bring the full force of the criminal law to bear on a journalist for writing a commentary on the public policy of an elected politician." (Via CPJ.org)