The Russian Union of Journalists, the RUJ, says it faces eviction from its Moscow headquarters to make room for a state-run satellite TV station, Russia Today.
The move comes as the union is about to host a global gathering of journalists, organised by a leading international press freedom body.
RUJ general secretary Igor Yakovenko said the eviction was based on an order from President Vladimir Putin to accommodate the expansion plans of the English-language news channel, which aims to foster a positive image of Russia abroad.
Eviction notice
The RUJ, Russia's largest public organisation with more than 100,000 members, says it does not intend to comply with the order, which is dated 18 April and gives the body one month to leave.
The RUJ's Vsevolod Bogdanov told Ekho Moskvy radio that the union had been offered a new lease in return for surrendering part of the premises.
"However, when our lawyers told them that the building had been paid for by the Union of Journalists of the Soviet Union, and that the union had helped to construct it, the official said: 'Forget it, who cares about what happened back then? Give the building to us voluntarily'."
The RUJ and Russia Today share the central Moscow building, which also houses the state-run news agency RIA Novosti, which launched Russia Today in 2005.
Mr Yakovenko says the union uses the building under a decree issued in the early 1990s by former President Boris Yeltsin.
Media freedom
The RUJ is set to host the 2007 World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a gathering of around 1,000 delegates from all over the world which opens on 28 May.
The Brussels-based body plans to discuss the safety of journalists in Russia and what it calls "the crisis of impunity" for those who harass, and sometimes kill, media workers. The special session is due to be addressed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Russian media has been a battleground between the state and independent players since the fall of communism in 1991.
Recent incidents include the murder last year of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the mysterious death in March of defence correspondent Ivan Safronov, from the business daily Kommersant, who fell from the window of his Moscow flat.
As international journalists converge on Moscow for their biggest gathering for three years, the spotlight on union rights, media freedom and the safety of journalists seems bound to give the Russian authorities an uncomfortable time, media analysts say.
BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~05~RS~)