CPJ urges Putin to end era of impunity’ in journalist murders
Moscow, July 8, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Vladimir Putin to end a deplorable era of impunity for the murder of journalists during his five-year tenure. “We are calling on President Putin to ensure that the Prosecutor-General’s Office makes greater progress in solving these brutal murders,” said CPJ…
Editor hospitalized after beating by two attackers
New York, July 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an attack against Nikolai Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk’s independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, who was beaten by two unidentified assailants on June 28. Kochurov remained hospitalized today with head and arm injuries after being struck with a heavy object by assailants who were waiting…
U.S. sends wrong message to the world
Restrictive regimes around the world came out ahead. Many were already taking a cue from a U.S. case involving the leak of a CIA officer’s name when the Supreme Court announced this week that it would not hear an appeal by two journalists. The reporters, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times, face 18-month jail terms for not revealing their confidential sources.
Russian journalist assassinated in Dagestan
New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder late Tuesday of Magomedzagid Varisov, a prominent journalist and political analyst, who was gunned down in a contract-style assassination in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan.
RUSSIA
JUNE 28, 2005 Posted: July 1, 2005 Magomedzagid Varisov, Novoye Delo KILLED—CONFIRMED Machine-gun toting assailants opened fire on Varisov’s sedan at around 9 p.m. as he was returning home with his wife and driver. Varisov sustained multiple bullet wounds and died at the scene. His wife was not injured; the driver was hospitalized with injuries,…
RUSSIA
JUNE 28, 2005 Posted: July 7, 2005 Nikolai Kochurov, Severodvinsky Rabochy ATTACKED Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk’s independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, was beaten by two unidentified assailants and hospitalized with head and arm injuries. Assailants waiting in the entry to Kochurov’s apartment building struck him with a heavy object as the journalist left for work that…
Russian reports say Maksimov murdered
New York, June 28, 2005–Police in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg consider three senior police investigators to be suspects in the June 2004 disappearance of local reporter Maksim Maksimov, according to local press reports. Police now believe the journalist was murdered for his work, those reports said. Maksimov, 41, an investigative reporter for…
Russian court imposes prison term in defamation case
New York, June 24, 2005—An arbitration court in the southern Russian city of Saratov convicted Eduard Abrosimov, a journalist and adviser to former regional governor Dmitry Ayatskov, of criminal defamation on Wednesday and sentenced him to seven months in a prison colony for defaming public officials in two articles published last year in national and…
Russian prosecutors identify alleged mastermind in Klebnikov murder
New York, June 16, 2005—The Russian Prosecutor-General’s office said today that a Chechen separatist leader ordered the July 2004 slaying of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russia, according to local and international press reports. Vasily Lushchenko, spokesman for the prosecutor-general’s office, identified the suspected mastermind as Khozh Akhmed Nukhayev, the subject of Klebnikov’s 2003 Russian-language…
Court sentences journalist to five years in prison colony
New York, June 15, 2005—An arbitration court in the central Russian city of Smolensk convicted independent journalist Nikolai Goshko on charges of criminal defamation and sentenced him to five years in a prison colony for defaming three Smolensk officials in a July 2000 broadcast on the independent station, Radio Vesna.