Man charged, sought in Politkovskaya murder
New York, May 12, 2008—The Investigative Committee at Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office announced today that 34-year-old ethnic Chechen Rustam Makhmudov has been charged in absentia with murdering Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, according to local news reports. The Investigative Committee issued an international warrant for Makhmudov’s arrest. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told journalists that seven…
Russian police search Novaya Gazeta newsroom, confiscate computers
New York, May 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that police in the southern Russian city of Samara have raided the local bureaus of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the independent news agency Regnum. Three journalists with other news organizations were also detained and interrogated, according to news reports. The…
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…
Police in St. Petersburg seize copies of opposition newspaper
New York, April 30, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the seizure on Sunday of thousands of copies of a special edition of Obyedinyonny Grazhdansky Front, the weekly newspaper of the United Civic Front (OGF), a Russian opposition group headed by the Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov. Confiscated by police…
Successor of Internews Russia suspends activity after police search
New York, April 23, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is very concerned about the effective closure of the Educated Media Foundation in Moscow last week. The foundation, the successor to Internews Russia, has been shut down since last Wednesday, when economic police searched its premises for 11 hours, seized all financial records, and shut down…
Russian journalist found dead hours after broadcast on prior attack
New York, April 13, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Russian authorities to fully investigate the death of Vyacheslav Ifanov, a cameraman for the independent Novoye Televideniye Aleiska (NTA), in the Siberian city of Aleisk. Prosecutors have classified Ifanov’s death as suicide by gas poisoning, but relatives and colleagues suspect foul play.