Warsaw, August 3 (RIA Novosti, Leonid Sviridov)-Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Andrei Babitsky was on vacation when he conducted a controversial interview with Russia's most wanted terrorist, Shamil Basayev, that was subsequently shown on America's ABC television, Radio Liberty's director of communications said Wednesday. Donald Jensen said Babitsky was a staffer at the U.S.-financed radio station, but was officially on vacation in the second half of June and could use his holiday time as he saw fit.
Jensen said that a staff member could choose to go where he or she pleased on vacation, as it was a private matter.
Asked when Liberty knew Babitsky had taken an interview with Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for numerous atrocities including the bloody Beslan school siege in 2004, Jensen said that the station had received a telephone call from ABC informing it that the channel had a report.
Jensen refused to comment on the morality of showing the interview, preferring to say that it was a matter for ABC. He added that Liberty had not used the material.
ABC broadcast the interview on July 28. The Russian Foreign Ministry decided Tuesday against renewing the television channel's accreditation in Moscow and recommended that state bodies and organizations avoid working with it.
The ministry highlighted that the interview had broken Russian law. In particular Babitsky did not have accreditation.
