Mission Journal: A visit to Russia’s Supreme Court
At the end of our recent mission to Moscow, our delegation squeezed in one final official meeting. Vyacheslav M. Lebedev, the chief justice of Russia’s Supreme Court, had sent word only the night before that he would receive us. The meeting had been brokered by Aleksei Venediktov, the legendary founder of the radio station Ekho…
Russia pledges to pursue journalist murder probes
Moscow, September 30, 2010–Top Russian investigators have pledged to pursue 19 cases of murdered journalists presented to them by a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, reopening several closed cases and pursuing new leads in a number of other probes.
CPJ seeks thorough investigation into Estemirova murder
New York, July 15, 2010—On the first anniversary of the brutal murder of prominent journalist and human rights defender Natalya Estemirova, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to thoroughly probe professional motives and aggressively pursue all suspects in the killing. Estemirova, left, who for 10 years documented the human toll of the…
CPJ seeks information on Estemirova murder in Russia
New York, February 26, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities investigating the July 2009 murder of prominent Russian journalist and human rights defender Natalya Estemirova to publicize their progress on the case seven months after the crime. The New York Times reported on Thursday that a top investigator with the Investigative Committee of…
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…
Natalya Estemirova case must be solved, say CPJ, PEN
President Medvedev: On the day PEN American Center and the Committee to Protect Journalists join together for a public tribute to slain independent journalist and human rights defender Natalya Estemirova, we call on you to ensure that both her assassins and those who sent them to her doorstep are brought to justice.
Bearing Witness in Chechnya
Please join us for a free public event examining the killing of Natalya Estemirova, a journalist who exposed human rights crimes in Chechnya. Estemirova was kidnapped in the Chechen capital of Grozny in July 2009 and subsequently murdered.The event, which features readings by Salman Rushdie and other prominent writers, will be held at 7 p.m.…
A memorial to killed journalists, a call to action
We’ve launched a new section of our Web site, and we hope you take a few minutes to read some of its pages. There is one, for example, on Russian reporter Natalya Estemirova, who dared to examine human rights crimes in Chechnya. Another is devoted to Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, a Tijuana newspaper editor who…
Natalya’s death: You don’t kill a story by killing a journalist
We were only 30 on Friday: representatives of human rights organizations, a few journalists and academics, a couple of anonymous “concerned citizens.” Standing on the Place de la Liberté (Freedom Square) in Brussels two blocks from the Parliament, a few meters away from a police team that had asked us to limit ourselves to a…
Prominent reporter abducted, murdered in Chechnya
New York, July 15, 2009–Today’s brutal murder of prominent journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, at left, in Chechnya must be thoroughly investigated immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.Estemirova, 50, was abducted this morning in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as she was leaving her apartment for work, Reuters reported. She was found shot in…