Slander case reply

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 8

Slander case reply

NZPA-Reuter MoscowTwo American reporters have told a Soviet court that they are refusing to answer a slander suit brought against them by the State television and radio committee. Harold Piper of the “Baltimore Sun” and Craig Whitney of the “New York Times” handed the court statements saying they felt it would not be right to par-

ticipale further in . proceedings. The State committee, which has equivalent status to a Government Ministry, has alleged that the two reporters denigrated the honour and dignity of its employees in articles they wrote about a dissident’s televised confession. As the two Moscow-based correspondents were handing their statements to the Moscow City Court president (Mr Lev Almazov), the American Ambassador (Mr Malcolm Toon) met the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko). Last Saturday in Washington, the American Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) summoned the Soviet Ambassador to Washington (Mr Anatoly Dobrynin) for a meeting during which they are believed to have discussed the correspondents’ case.

In their statements to the court, both Piper and Whitney said they had been simply quoting friends and relatives of the dissident, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, in the articles cited in the suit. The writ alleges that the two correspondents wrote that Gamsakhurdia’s confession, broadcast on the day he received a five-year sentence of labour camp and exile, had been faked by the

authorities. In the confession, Gamsakhurdia, a member of the Georgian “Helsinki” hujtnanrights group, admitted agitating against the State. In their statements, Whitney and Piper pointed out that the articles had not been disseminated on - Soviet territory and said that they were; not willing to reveal their sources to a court. The reporters told Colleagues after the court meet-' ing that Judge Almazov, who has presided at trials of prominent Soviet dissidents, told them that if they did not appear for a court hearing, the case could be dismissed. But he set July 18 as the date for the hearing and warned them that he saw no reason to dismiss the case, Whitney said.

Dissident sources in Moscow said that relatives of Gamsakhurdia had offered to testify as witnesses for the two American reporters, who wrote their articles on a visit together to Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia last May. In an action generally interpreted as a warning of reprisals for Soviet reporters, the State Department last Saturday called in three Russian correspondents in Washington to review their accreditation.