Russia

We've launched a new section of our Web site, and we hope you take a few minutes to read some of its pages. There is one, for example, on Russian reporter Natalya Estemirova, who dared to examine human rights crimes in Chechnya. Another is devoted to Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, a Tijuana newspaper editor who exposed the workings of the Arellano Félix drug cartel. They are among the 758 journalists killed for their work since 1992. Our new database memorializes these women and men, most of whom were local reporters, photographers, producers, and editors who confronted the powerful or took unpopular positions.

When CPJ issued its recent special report Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia, we called on world leaders to join us in engaging Russian leaders on human rights, press freedom, and impunity. We were pleased to hear Secretary Hillary Clinton do just that today when she spoke about impunity at a town-hall style meeting today in Moscow. 

On the third anniversary of the murder of Novaya Gazeta investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:

We issued the following statement after Paris-based press freedom group Reporters without Borders (RSF) said its Secretary General Jean-François Julliard and a staffer were refused Russian visas to attend events marking the October 7, 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya...

Amid ongoing attacks on journalists, CPJ advocacy in Europe and Central Asia has generated some positive results. Earlier this month, a CPJ delegation met with Russian and European officials, who promised to revisit 17 journalist murders in Russia since 2000. The declared commitment to reverse Russia’s grim record of impunity came after we presented our own in-depth investigation into the unsolved killings of Russian journalists in our report Anatomy of Injustice.

On September 15, a CPJ delegation released a special report in Moscow on impunity in journalist killings committed in Russia under the country’s current leadership. The report, Anatomy of Injustice, garnered an unusual amount of attention from the Russian media. Our press conference at the Independent Press Center was packed with journalists, both domestic and international; representatives from 20 news agencies, print and online publications, and radio and television outlets covered the release. The high attendance was a clear sign of the magnitude of the issue and the urgent need for it to be addressed.

Over the summer, as a book I’d written about the lives of murdered journalists went to press, a crusading human rights reporter from the Russian republic of Chechnya was shot dead. I was not surprised by the details of her murder, just as the Chechen reporter was not surprised she’d become a target for execution: Like all the journalists in my book, Natalya Estemirova had known she would probably be murdered.

A delegation, led by CPJ Board Member Kati Marton, and including Senior Advisor Jean-Paul Marthoz and Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova, had a two-hour-long substantive meeting today with 11 officials from Russia's Investigative Committee, including Petros Gaibyan, the senior investigator in charge of the probes into Anna Politkovskaya's and Paul Klebnikov's murder cases. Following the meeting, at which the investigations of 17 journalist killings examined in CPJ's newly released special report "Anatomy of Injustice" were discussed, the delegation released the following statement...

We released this statement today after Russia's Supreme Court returned the case against three men suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya to prosecutors for further investigation...

In response to Russian press reports that the family of Anna Politkovskaya has appealed for further investigation into the suspected role of three men in her murder before sending them back to court, we issued the following statement...