Murder of Boris Nemtsov highlights Russia’s impunity record
The brazen contract-style killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday night–carried out within range of a dozen security cameras and yards from the Kremlin walls in Moscow–serves as a grim reminder of the risks government critics face in Russia.
In Russia, media regulator uses warnings to restrict the press
In January, Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor issued warnings to six news outlets that published cartoons from French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Roskomnadzor said the cartoons were “insulting the religious feelings of Muslims and inciting religious hatred,” and that the outlets had broken laws on media and extremism, Russian news agency Tass reported.
Journalists investigating deaths of Russian soldiers are threatened and attacked
Journalists investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers that news reports claimed were killed during Russia’s alleged involvement in Ukraine’s conflict have been targeted in a series of attacks since late August, according to a press freedom group. Russia has denied that its soldiers were involved in the conflict, but journalists who spoke to the Committee…
Mission Journal: Attacks on journalists in Ukraine lead to information vacuum
“There are no [independent] Ukrainian journalists left in Donetsk,” said Aleksei Matsuka, chief editor of the regional news website Novosti Donbassa (News of Donbass). “They have fled the region since pro-Russia separatists started targeting and kidnapping reporters,” Matsuka told CPJ during our brief meeting in Kiev.
Despite recent convictions, Anna Politkovskaya’s murder remains unsolved
Nearly eight years after Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in an elevator near her apartment, authorities appear to have made little progress identifying the mastermind behind her murder. Although five men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on June 9 for their roles in the slaying of the Novaya Gazeta journalist, her family…
Five convicted in murder of Anna Politkovskaya
New York, May 20, 2014–A Moscow City Court jury today convicted five individuals for planning, participating, and carrying out the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, local and international press reported. Three of the defendants had been acquitted in an earlier trial. A mastermind was not named in today’s verdict.
In Ukraine, journalists face violence, abduction
New York, May 12, 2014–Local and international journalists covering the crisis in Ukraine have been assaulted and arbitrarily detained in the past week, according to news reports and a local press freedom organization. At least one was attacked while covering a contested referendum Sunday on autonomy for the east of the country, the reports said.
Politkovskaya murder trial proceeds with third jury
More than seven years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the prominent Novaya Gazeta journalist, a jury is hearing the case against five defendants in the killing. The suspects were first announced in 2011, but proceedings did not begin until July 2013, amid controversy. Three of the current defendants were earlier acquitted of Politkovskaya’s murder…
CPJ welcomes conviction in Igor Domnikov’s murder
New York, December 20, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s conviction by Moscow’s Lyublinsky court of Russian businessman Pavel Sopot for inciting the 2000 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Igor Domnikov. The court sentenced Sopot to a seven-year term in a high-security prison, and ordered him to pay the journalist’s widow 1 million rubles…