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The murder of Anna Politkovskaya

Russia: Fearless Reporter’s Murder Draws International Outrage

http://www.ifex.org - IFEX COMMUNIQUÉ VOL 15 NO 40 | 10 OCTOBER 2006 |

see also : Anna Politkovskaya shot dead

Free expression advocates in Russia and around the world are in shock over the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in her apartment building in Moscow on 7 October 2006. Her murder has provoked a storm of international outrage and focused attention on a country where 13 journalists have been killed with impunity since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.

Politkovskaya was found slumped in the elevator of her apartment after a gunman shot her and fled. A gun and four bullets were found at the scene of the crime. She was buried on 10 October after a funeral ceremony attended by thousands of mourners.

Her murder was condemned by International PEN, PEN Canada, PEN American Center, the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, Glasnost Defence Foundation, the World Association of Newspapers, Human Rights Watch, the International Press Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists.

Politkovskaya was a special correspondent for the independent Moscow newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" and was one of the few remaining reporters who dared to criticise powerful figures. She was well known for her investigative reports on human rights abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya. Over the years, she was threatened, jailed and forced into exile. Despite these threats, she published the book "A Dirty War: a Russian Reporter in Chechnya" in 2003. Her most recent book, "Putin’s War: Life in a Failing Democracy", is to be published in paperback in December this year.

Colleagues at "Novaya Gazeta" said Politkovskaya had been working on a story about torture and abductions in Chechnya, and placed the blame on Moscow-backed Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov.

President Putin has promised an objective investigation into Politkovskaya’s death, calling her murder "tragic," reports RSF. The country’s Prosecutor General, Yuri Chaika, has taken personal charge of the case.

Sceptical that the official investigation will bring the perpetrators to justice, "Novaya Gazeta" said it would conduct its own investigation into the murder. It has offered an award of close to US$1 million for information that would help solve the crime.

Russia is the third deadliest country in the world for journalists over the past 15 years, behind only the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Algeria, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). According to a new report by the organisation, 42 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, many of them slain in contract-style executions. The vast majority have not been solved by Russian authorities.

Visit these links:
- CJES: http://www.cjes.ru/
- GDF: http://www.gdf.ru/
- International PEN: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.php?pid=33&aid=493
- PEN American Center: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/843/prmID/172
- PEN Canada: http://www.pencanada.ca/media/Media-Politkovskaya10Oct06.pdf
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/09/russia14370.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/europe/russia07oct06na.html
- WAN: http://www.wan-press.org/article12075.html
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=4280&Language=EN
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19105
- Twelve Murders, No Justice: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/russia_murders/russia_murders.html
- OSCE: http://www.osce.org/item/21232.html
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya