Russia

2012

  

Journalist deaths spike in 2012 due to Syria, Somalia

Syrian violence contributed to a sharp rise in the number of journalists killed for their work in 2012, as did a series of murders in Somalia. The dead include a record proportion of journalists who worked online. A CPJ special report

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(AFP/Pedro Pardo)

Journalists still murdered where impunity reigns

Almost half of the 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2012 were targeted and murdered for their work, research by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows. The vast majority covered politics. Many also reported on war, human rights, and crime. In almost half of these cases, political groups are the suspected source of fire. There has…

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Former police official Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov arrives in court Friday. He was jailed for 11 years for his role in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. (Reuters/Anton Petrov)

Russia still far from solving Politkovskaya murder

New York, December 17, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a retrial of a key defendant in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. The defendant, a former senior police official, was sentenced Friday in a deal that Politkovskaya’s family and colleagues fear will not ultimately identify the crime’s true masterminds. Moscow City Court wrapped…

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People holding portraits of Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow on October 7, the 6th anniversary of her murder, call on authorities to punish the killers of journalists in Russia. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Closed trial in Politkovskaya case dashes hopes

The trial of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a former police lieutenant colonel and a key suspect in the 2006 murder of prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, started at Moscow City Court today under presiding Judge Aleksandr Zamashnyuk. 

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Kazbek Gekkiyev was shot dead on Wednesday. (Reuters/VGTRK)

News anchor shot dead in Russia’s North Caucasus

New York, December 6, 2012–Authorities should immediately investigate Wednesday’s murder of a journalist in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.Two unidentified men shot Kazbek Gekkiyev, 28, in the head three times while he was returning home from work with his friend at…

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CPJ

Speak Justice campaign fights impunity in press murders

The tortured and decapitated body of 39-year-old María Elizabeth Macías Castro was found on a Saturday evening in September 2011. It had been dumped by the side of a road in Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border town ravaged by the war on drugs. Macías, a freelance journalist, wrote about organized crime on social media under…

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CPJ

Twenty-three days to take action against impunity

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought to justice. Other attacks on freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare. Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists…

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Justice long overdue in Anna Politkovskaya murder

New York, October 5, 2012 – As the sixth anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s brutal murder nears, the Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the complete absence of justice in her killing despite government pledges to solve the crime.

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Tanya Lokshina announced today that she has received threatening text messages. (AFP/Natalia Kolesnikova)

Russia must investigate threats against leading researcher

New York, October 4, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns threats against Tanya Lokshina, a leading Russian researcher and writer known for her work documenting human rights abuses in the North Caucasus. CPJ calls for an urgent, thorough, and effective investigation that tracks down all responsible.

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CPJ
A security guard at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, right, runs toward Pussy Riot supporters holding Cyrillic letters reading 'Blessed are the Merciful' in Moscow on Aug. 15. (AP/Novaya Gazeta, Yevgeny Feldman)

Mission Journal: Putin imposes harsh climate on Russia

Record-high temperatures swept most of Europe this summer, but in Moscow the weather, much like the political climate, was chilly. I spent three months in the capital at the invitation of the Russian Union of Journalists, and witnessed how Vladimir Putin’s third term in office kicked off with the passage of restrictive laws, harassment and…

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2012