Attacks on the Press 2009: Russia
Top Developments• International community intensifies pressure to halt impunity.• Authorities restart investigations into Klebnikov, Politkovskaya murders. Key Statistic 19: Journalists murdered in retaliation for their work since 2000. Murder convictions have been won in one case. After a deadly decade for the press, the tone set by the Kremlin appeared to have changed. President Dmitry Medvedev said…
Arrests welcomed in Moscow double murder
We issued this statement following today’s announcement by Russia’s Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor General’s Office that two individuals have been arrested and charged with the January 19 murder in Moscow of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova. The two suspects are 29-year-old Nikita Tikhonov and 24-year-old Yevgeniya Khasis, identified in the…
CPJ testimony focuses on Russian impunity
Nina Ognianova, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, provided testimony to the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on the pressing issue of impunity in journalist murders in Russia. The commission held a hearing this week on Russia’s human rights record. A transcript of the testimony follows:
In summit, Obama should address Russian impunity
Dear President Obama: In advance of your July 6-8 summit in Moscow with President Dmitry Medvedev, we’d like to draw your attention to the pressing issue of impunity in violent crimes against journalists in Russia. We ask you to place this issue on the agenda for your talks. Seventeen journalists have been murdered for their work or have died under suspicious circumstances since 2000. In only one case have the killers been convicted. In every case, the masterminds remain unpunished.
Corrupt Russian police are a ‘dark force’ against press
Leonid Nikitinsky has a dry sense of humor. “Unless you are killed in a very interesting way, don’t come and see me,” he told an audience at CPJ’s offices on Thursday. There are, after all, too many murders for him to cover, said Nikitinsky, right, a court reporter for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta.
Neo-Nazis threaten to murder journalists in Russia
New York, February 11, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for Russian authorities to immediately investigate a death threat that was sent to a human rights research center. In an e-mail, a neo-Nazi group threatened to murder a number of journalists and intellectuals in the next year, according to the recipient of the threat.
CPJ calls on Medvedev to address impunity
Dear President Medvedev: CPJ is outraged by the January 19 murder of Anastasiya Baburova, the 25-year-old freelance correspondent for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta who was gunned down in broad daylight in downtown Moscow, along with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov.
Murder pushes Novaya Gazeta to request guns
In a November 2007 interview, just before receiving CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, Dmitry Muratov, the editor of the embattled Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, recalled the loss of three colleagues to work-related murders in six years. “We have suffered war-like casualties,” Muratov said.
Journalist, human rights lawyer shot dead in Moscow
New York, January 20, 2009–A reporter for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and a prominent human rights lawyer whose clients included murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya were both shot and killed on Monday. At around 3 p.m., Anastasiya Baburova, 25, and Stanislav Markelov, 34, were walking together toward a metro stop in Moscow after a press…