Novaya Gazeta

Over the summer, as a book I’d written about the lives of murdered journalists went to press, a crusading human rights reporter from the Russian republic of Chechnya was shot dead. I was not surprised by the details of her murder, just as the Chechen reporter was not surprised she’d become a target for execution:…

Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia   This report was researched and written by Nina Ognianova, CPJ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, with assistance from Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ research associate, and Alex Lupis, CPJ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator from 2000 to 2006. The reporting is based on four…

It is a sad irony: While the world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia itself is relapsing to some of its Soviet ways. In fact, for journalists, Russia is a more dangerous place now than it was during the Cold War. 

Secrecy, indifference, conflicts mar investigations into journalist deaths. Moscow has a responsibility to uphold the rule of law. Its international partners have an obligation, too.

Assassins targeted the internationally known journalists Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya two years apart in Moscow. Despite promises, arrests, and trials, no one has been brought to justice.

By Leonid NikitinskyIf justice failed when juries acquitted suspects in two high-profile cases, it was not the jurors’ fault. Indeed, the jury system may prove the best route to justice.

The two victims were energetic journalists, expert in their fields, fair in their reporting. They died in suspicious circumstances that have not been fully investigated.

Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia “The recognition, observance and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen shall be the obligation of the State. … Everyone shall have the right to life. … Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of ideas and speech.” —Constitution of the Russian Federation, Articles…

Journalists have been silenced for covering Chechnya and its neighboring republics, Dagestan and Ingushetia. Opaque investigations into the killings have fed deep skepticism.