Journalists Lose Dedicated Room at Khamovnichesky District Court
The room previously dedicated to journalists covering the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev trial has been turned into a room for court staff. Additionally, the three plasma television screens used to monitor the trial, have been removed.
Court officials also explained that arms would also be stored in the room, which means that no one can now enter it without permission.
The media are concerned how they will not find space in the courtroom on those days when important witnesses are giving evidence, the defendants are having their last say, and the judge reads out the verdict.
In April 2009, at the request of the prosecution, video recordings were banned from the courtroom. Read the courtroom update for April 23, 2009 >>
Later, in May 2009, the court denied the defense's motion to reinstate the live video feed of the trial. The defense renewed the request to have the video feed restored in November 2009.
Commenting on the use of video monitoring for the media, Olga Egorova, a Moscow City Court Justice, said that video conference was a way for a hearing to be more open to public. Egorova said: "Let us take the Khodorkovsky case as an example. They do a videoconference of the hearing in another room. At first people were eager to attend the hearing itself however now they are fine with viewing the videoconference of the hearing. The videoconference has been set up for people to know what is going on."
Additionally, Judge Danilkin has also barred the media from interviewing Mikhail Khodorkovsky while he is in court.