Hunt for journalists in today's Russia

As reported by the New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 12 journalists have been killed in Russia for the last five years, five of them covered developments in the North Caucasus. They are Iskandar Khatloni, a Radio Liberty reporter, Natalya Skryl, a reporter for Nashe Vremya, Rostov-on-Don, Adam Tepsurgayev, a Reuters reporter in Chechnya, Paul Klebnikov, Russian Forbes editor, and Magomedzagid Varisov, a journalist from the Novoye Delo weekly, Makhachkala. They all were killed in contract-style murders, CPJ members told a press conference "Hunt for Journalists in Today's Russia" at the Independent Press Center, Moscow, on 8 July.

No one has been brought to justice in any of the cases. "We are calling on President Putin to ensure that the Prosecutor General's Office makes greater progress in solving these brutal murders," Prima New Agency quoted CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. These murders have sown fear and self-censorship among Russia's independent media, she added. Ms Cooper reminded that in May, CPJ made a list of countries where journalists' rights are violated most of all. Russia took the fifth place in the list, after the Philippines, Iraq, Bangladesh, and Colombia.