Ingushetia police detain, beat, deport journalists
New York, January 29, 2008—Police in the southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia detained, beat, and deported journalists and human rights activists who tried to cover an opposition rally in the regional capital on Saturday, according to CPJ sources and local news reports. Authorities mounted a massive crackdown against the roughly 200 protesters in Nazran. Riot…
Russian daily says Politkovskaya reports spur Chechnya investigation
New York, January 25, 2007—The Chechnya prosecutor’s office is investigating officers of the southern republic’s Interior Ministry in connection with articles by the slain investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, the Moscow business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday. The daily quoted Chechnya prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov as saying that Politkovskaya’s accounts of alleged torture last spring prompted his office…
Chechnya police may be behind Politkovskaya murder, Russian officials tell CPJ
Moscow, January 23, 2007—Russia’s prosecutor general has opened a criminal investigation into several police officials in Chechnya who may have killed reporter Anna Politkovskaya because she was about to publish an article alleging their involvement in torture. The information was disclosed to a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists in a meeting on Monday…
Colleagues of Anna Politkovskaya receive death threats
New York, November 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats against two colleagues of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The independent Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta said in a statement yesterday that two of its leading journalists received anonymous death threats on November 24. Deputy Editor Sergei Sokolov told the independent radio…
Who will be Russia’s conscience?
Anna Politkovskaya was one of Russia’s greatest investigative reporters and one of the world’s leading experts on the conflict in Chechnya. At the time of her death, she was preparing to publish a story alleging that Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, had been involved in torture.
See: CPJ calls on Putin to take responsibility for Politkovskaya murder probe
SEE: New York, October 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belated public condemnation today of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder but called on him to express unambiguous support for the criminal investigation.
CPJ condemns slaying of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya
New York, October 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist renowned for her critical coverage of the Chechen conflict. Politkovskaya was found shot to death in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, The Associated Press reported.
Independent weekly newspaper’s offices searched
JULY 14, 2006 Posted: August 16, 2006 Orlovskye Novosti HARASSED Police searched the offices of the independent weekly newspaper Orlovskiye Novosti in the western Russian city of Oryol. Five police officers, accompanied by two officials from the local Office of Taxation, stated that the newspaper had failed to pay taxes. “The chief editor, Andrei Kanatnikov,…
CPJ condemns draft law to silence government criticism
New York, December 7, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by draft legislation that makes criticism of authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and his government punishable by up to five years in prison. The lower house of parliament passed amendments to the Penal Code on December 2, a move criticized by the United States and…