paul-klebnikov

Before he even arrived in Moscow, President Barack Obama gave an exclusive interview to an independent Russian newspaper that has long been on the front lines of press freedom. Novaya Gazeta is known for its ground-breaking investigative reports--and the fact that four of its journalists have been killed in retaliation for their work.

Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, provided testimony to the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on the pressing issue of impunity in journalist murders in Russia. The commission held a hearing this week on Russia's human rights record. A transcript of the testimony follows:

CPJ’s Impunity Index spotlights countries
where journalists are slain and killers go free

New York, March 23, 2009 -- The already murderous conditions for the press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Colombia, historically one of the world’s deadliest nations for the press, improved as the rate of murders declined and prosecutors won important recent convictions.

New York, November 19, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disappointed at today's decision by the Moscow District Military Court to close the jury trial of three suspects in the October 2006 assassination of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya to the public, only two days after it declared it would be open.

The world watched in horror when Paul Klebnikov was gunned down in Russia. Much was done to solve the case. Then it all came unraveled in a Moscow court.

New York, October 6, 2008--Three men will soon go to trial in the October 2006 assassination of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, according to local news reports. Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office approved the indictments on Wednesday, and sent the case to court on Thursday.

CPJ's Impunity Index ranks countries where killers of journalists go free

New York, April 30, 2008 -- Democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists' killers according to the Impunity Index, a list of countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists where governments have consistently failed to solve journalists' murders.

Constitutional constraints posed little problem for a term-limited President Vladimir Putin, who appeared certain to hold power long after his tenure was due to end in 2008. The popular, two-term president hopped into the parliamentary race in the fall, topping the dominant United Russia ticket that took 64 percent of the vote in a December 2 election. Eight days later, Putin endorsed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor, smoothing his protégé’s road to the March 2008 presidential election. Medvedev returned the favor by announcing that, as president, he would name Putin prime minister—a post likely to carry greater powers given United Russia’s control of parliament.