The co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Cohen, condemns the firing of Andrew Travers
WASHINGTON – Steve Cohen (TN-09), Representative of the Chair of the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe, issued the following statement today:
“I condemn the firing of Andrew Travers of the Aspen Times. He is a clear target of the law. Vladislav Doronin’s libel suit against the magazine is a textbook example of strategic litigation against public participation. We must resist the intimidation of kleptocrats who seek to shut down investigative reporting on their crimes.”
Mr. Travers was suddenly fired as editor of the Aspen Times on Friday, June 10, for publishing an op-ed by columnist Roger Marolt detailing forced censorship of the Times by its owner, Ogden Newspapers. The censorship order was in response to an April 13 defamation lawsuit filed against the Times by Soviet-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin. His intent was to dampen his $76 million purchase of the Aspen Mountain site and a survey of development rights.
Co-Chair Cohen has championed freedom of the press and directly opposed the use of the law—an abusive legal tactic to silence, harass or intimidate. In April, Co-Chair Cohen sent a letter to the Biden administration demanding that six British lawyers known for their violent tactics at the behest of oligarchs be banned from the United States. In 2010, Co-Chair Cohen’s SPEECH Act was signed into law, making foreign defamation convictions unenforceable in the United States unless they meet US free speech standards.
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