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…
“We are disappointed that Russian authorities would block our colleagues from Reporters without Borders from holding a press conference with Anna Politkovskaya’s paper on the third-year anniversary of her murder,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “The Russian embassy in Paris says the reasons for the denial are technical, but the timing is suspicious. We call on Russian authorities to immediately allow our colleagues to travel to Moscow.”