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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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…