Rights organizations have been criticizing Russia's banning of a U.S. journalist from the country for five years.
Reporters Without Borders said on January 16 that it was "shocked" by Moscow's decision to ban David Satter for overstaying his visa "especially as the offense seems to have been the result of the foreign ministry’s own delay" in giving him a new document.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called the ban "a menacing omen for the thousands of foreign journalists due to attend the Games" in Sochi.
The Russian rights organization Memorial told the Russian Foreign Ministry that "the decision on the ban on entry is absolutely inconsistent with the minor and apparently unintentional administrative violation of which [Satter] is accused."
Satter had been working in Russia since September 2013 as an adviser to RFE/RL's Russian Service.
Reporters Without Borders said on January 16 that it was "shocked" by Moscow's decision to ban David Satter for overstaying his visa "especially as the offense seems to have been the result of the foreign ministry’s own delay" in giving him a new document.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called the ban "a menacing omen for the thousands of foreign journalists due to attend the Games" in Sochi.
The Russian rights organization Memorial told the Russian Foreign Ministry that "the decision on the ban on entry is absolutely inconsistent with the minor and apparently unintentional administrative violation of which [Satter] is accused."
Satter had been working in Russia since September 2013 as an adviser to RFE/RL's Russian Service.