Attacks on the Press in 2011: Impunity Still the Norm in Russia
Russian investigators have adopted a more serious tone when discussing unsolved journalist murders, but officials still lack the will to apprehend masterminds of the killings. The lack of convictions takes a serious toll on investigative journalism. By Nina Ognianova
CPJ seeks progress in solving Russia’s Togliatti murders
New York, December 8, 2010–Authorities with Russia’s Investigative Committee must show evidence that they are legitimately investigating the consecutive murders of two editors of the independent newspaper Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Investigative Committee of Samara Region–which has jurisdiction over the cases of Valery Ivanov (killed in April 2002) and Aleksei Sidorov (killed in October 2003)–announced…
Why a killing in Chechnya is an international issue
By Nina Ognianova The day before, Natalya Estemirova had seen off two colleagues from Moscow. Yelena Milashina, a reporter with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Tanya Lokshina, an advocate with the international group Human Rights Watch, had traveled to Chechnya on separate assignments. Like many visiting journalists and human rights defenders, Milashina and Lokshina had…
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.
Police confiscate Russian newspaper’s computers
New York, February 5, 2008—On Friday, police in the southern Russian city of Togliatti raided the newsroom of an independent weekly, confiscating all 20 of its computers, newspaper staff told CPJ. Special agents from the police department for high-tech crimes told the staff of Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye (Togliatti Review) that they were confiscating the…
The Moscow Declaration
e, the relatives and colleagues of journalists murdered in Russia, along with Russian and international press freedom advocates, who convened for a conference in Moscow on July 7, 2005, declare the following: The lack of progress in investigating journalist murders undermines freedom and democracy in Russia, and demonstrates the lawlessness and impunity with which Russian…
Media executive severely beaten
New York, May 25, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Sunday’s assault on Dmitry Suryaninov, general director of the Media-Samara holding company, which owns several news outlets in the Samara region of southern Russia. At least two assailants battered Suryaninov with baseball bats near his home in Samara, the regional capital, according to local and…
Attacks on the Press 2004: Russia
RussiaA midyear purge of independent voices on state television and an alarming suppression of news coverage during the Beslan hostage crisis marked a year in which Russian President Vladimir Putin increasingly exerted Soviet-style control over the media. Using intelligence agents and an array of politicized state agencies, Putin pushed for an obedient and patriotic press…
Court acquits suspect in Togliatti editor’s murder
New York, October 12, 2004—A Russian district court judge yesterday acquitted a factory welder in the October 2003 murder of Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye Editor Aleksei Sidorov. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which questioned whether the prosecution was aimed at the true killer, called today for a new and more credible investigation.