Reporters, CPJ brief Congressional caucus on dangers facing Russian journalists
Washington, June 28, 2007—Two exiled Russian journalists and a CPJ representative told the Congressional Human Rights Caucus today about widespread impunity in journalist murders in Russia and the perils facing independent journalists who cover the volatile North Caucasus.
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…
Journalists attacked, threatened amid growing political tensions
New York, April 9, 2007-The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by an attack and threats against several provincial journalists amid escalating political tension between Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and opposition leaders calling for his resignation. “It’s the responsibility of journalists to report on political demonstrations and we are deeply concerned that journalists in Kyrgyzstan…
Independent editor jailed in Russia
New York, February 22, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the fate of Vladimir Chugunov, founder and editor of the independent weekly Chugunka, who has been imprisoned since January 21, according to his family and the independent Moscow daily Novaya Gazeta. Chugunov was summoned to police headquarters in Solnechnogorsk, 40 miles (64…
Another paper raided over ‘pirated’ software
New York, February 8, 2008—For the second time in a week, Russian police have raided an independent newspaper and seized its computers, accusing it of using pirated Microsoft software. The latest incident was on Wednesday, when police in St. Petersburg raided the offices of the weekly Minuty Veka and its publishing house, seizing its computers.…
Attacks on the Press in 2006: Preface
By Anderson CooperSilence. When a journalist is killed, more often than not, there is silence. In Russia, someone followed Anna Politkovskaya home and quietly shot her to death in her apartment building. The killer muffled the sound of the gun with a silencer. Her murder made headlines around the world in October, but from the…
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…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Europe and Central Asia Analysis
Getting away with murder in the former Soviet states By Nina Ognianova The assassin in a baseball cap who gunned down Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow apartment used a silencer. But reverberations from the contract-style slaying of Russia’s icon of investigative journalism were felt around the world.