Various news outlets had coverage over the weekend of press freedom in Russian in light of last week’s brutal assault on Mikhail Beketov, a Moscow newspaper editor who still remains comatose in a local hospital. The Chicago Tribune as well as the UK-based newspapers The Guardian and The Sunday Herald are running stories about the dangers…
There is more coverage of yesterday’s revelation that the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial will again be held behind closed doors. VOA News, The Sydney Morning Herald, and GulfNews are all running reports that say the proceedings were closed to reporters after jurors came forward to express fear for their safety. However, in an interesting twist,…
New York, November 19, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disappointed at today’s decision by the Moscow District Military Court to close the jury trial of three suspects in the October 2006 assassination of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya to the public, only two days after it declared it would be open.
A new turn in the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial is making news today across the wires. It was initially going to be held behind closed doors, but had been opened to the public on Monday. However, stories from AP, Reuters, AFP, and RFE/RL all report that the court has repealed that ruling and will now close the trial to outside observers. Reports claim…
We issued the following statement today in response to Russian news reports of ongoing death threats via cell phone against Mikhail Beketov, the hospitalized editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, who was severely beaten on Wednesday…