Biba Klomp
11-23-2009, 09:41 AM
It is a sad irony: While the world celebrates the
20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,
Russia itself is relapsing to some of its Soviet
ways. In fact, for journalists, Russia is a more dangerous
place now than it was during the Cold War.
Only Iraq and Algeria outrank Russia on the list of
most life-threatening countries for the press. Seventeen
journalists have been murdered in Russia
since 2000. In only one case have the killers been
punished. This is a sorry record for a great and
powerful nation that embarked on democratization
after more than 70 years of brutal repression.
That is why the Committee to Protect Journalists
is releasing an unprecedented report that calls
on the international community to help reverse this
slide toward lawlessness. Our mission is to protect
journalists, and we are less and less able to
do so in Russia. Though we continue to appeal to
Russian authorities to bring to justice those who
murdered our colleagues, we can no longer leave
it at that. This report is more than an expression of our outrage. We propose concrete guidelines and
present hard facts for restarting investigations into
these unsolved murders.
Let us be perfectly plain. Any state that turns
a blind eye—or worse—toward the assassination
of reporters cannot call itself a democracy.
When journalists are threatened, democracy itself
is threatened. Along with the rule of law, an
independent judiciary, and an autonomous civil
society, free media is one of the essential pillars
of a healthy society. Remove one, and the whole
structure may collapse.
Read the full report here (http://cpj.org/reports/CPJ.Anatomy%20of%20Injustice.pdf).
20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,
Russia itself is relapsing to some of its Soviet
ways. In fact, for journalists, Russia is a more dangerous
place now than it was during the Cold War.
Only Iraq and Algeria outrank Russia on the list of
most life-threatening countries for the press. Seventeen
journalists have been murdered in Russia
since 2000. In only one case have the killers been
punished. This is a sorry record for a great and
powerful nation that embarked on democratization
after more than 70 years of brutal repression.
That is why the Committee to Protect Journalists
is releasing an unprecedented report that calls
on the international community to help reverse this
slide toward lawlessness. Our mission is to protect
journalists, and we are less and less able to
do so in Russia. Though we continue to appeal to
Russian authorities to bring to justice those who
murdered our colleagues, we can no longer leave
it at that. This report is more than an expression of our outrage. We propose concrete guidelines and
present hard facts for restarting investigations into
these unsolved murders.
Let us be perfectly plain. Any state that turns
a blind eye—or worse—toward the assassination
of reporters cannot call itself a democracy.
When journalists are threatened, democracy itself
is threatened. Along with the rule of law, an
independent judiciary, and an autonomous civil
society, free media is one of the essential pillars
of a healthy society. Remove one, and the whole
structure may collapse.
Read the full report here (http://cpj.org/reports/CPJ.Anatomy%20of%20Injustice.pdf).