Spring Break
Reporters worldwide battle for freedom
Furrah Qureshi
Issue date: 5/16/08 Section: Ed-Op
Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was due to publish an article detailing the torture and kidnappings in Chechnya based on witness accounts and photographs of tortured bodies that she had collected. But mere days before her article was supposed to see print, she was gunned down in her Moscow apartment. This was in October 2006. And as of today, nine people have been charged as co-conspirators in her murder, and two of the accused were released May 12 on the condition that they remain in the country. Rustam Makhmudov is the alleged gunman.
The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote that Politkovskaya "was at least the 43rd journalist killed for her work in Russia since 1993." The CJP has ranked Russia as the No. 3 most deadly country for journalists. According to data from the International Organization of Reporters Without Borders, 21 journalists were murdered in Russia between 2000 and 2007 alone. Russia, particularly under Vladamir Putin's rule, has a long record in a short history of curtailing not only the civil liberties of its journalists, but the lives of these journalists as well.
The journalistic community has little hope of finding justice for Politkovskaya; the Russian government is notorious for hindering investigatory efforts and acquitting alleged murderers in the wake of overwhelming evidence. Dmitry Kholodov, another Russian reporter who investigated military corruption, was killed in October 1994 when a briefcase he had picked up at a train station blew up in his office. Colleagues said he had been told it contained evidence. In this case, the six men accused in the killing were acquitted, and the Russian Supreme Court upheld the rulings in June 2005.
Political think-tanks always ponder the unanswerable debate of public safety vs. civil liberties - which one is more important? I believe Anna Politkovskaya would argue that they are one in the same in Russia. Politkovskaya had a magnanimous record of human rights activism and has published article upon article promulgating the Russian abuse of Chechnyans and criticizing the Russian military; she was even a witness in a criminal case that concerned the kidnapping and torture of two civilians.
The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote that Politkovskaya "was at least the 43rd journalist killed for her work in Russia since 1993." The CJP has ranked Russia as the No. 3 most deadly country for journalists. According to data from the International Organization of Reporters Without Borders, 21 journalists were murdered in Russia between 2000 and 2007 alone. Russia, particularly under Vladamir Putin's rule, has a long record in a short history of curtailing not only the civil liberties of its journalists, but the lives of these journalists as well.
The journalistic community has little hope of finding justice for Politkovskaya; the Russian government is notorious for hindering investigatory efforts and acquitting alleged murderers in the wake of overwhelming evidence. Dmitry Kholodov, another Russian reporter who investigated military corruption, was killed in October 1994 when a briefcase he had picked up at a train station blew up in his office. Colleagues said he had been told it contained evidence. In this case, the six men accused in the killing were acquitted, and the Russian Supreme Court upheld the rulings in June 2005.
Political think-tanks always ponder the unanswerable debate of public safety vs. civil liberties - which one is more important? I believe Anna Politkovskaya would argue that they are one in the same in Russia. Politkovskaya had a magnanimous record of human rights activism and has published article upon article promulgating the Russian abuse of Chechnyans and criticizing the Russian military; she was even a witness in a criminal case that concerned the kidnapping and torture of two civilians.
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