Anna Politkovskaya: Assassination of a Fearless Journalist

There has been an international outcry at the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist, who worked at the bi-weekly liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The deputy editor of the publication was quoted as saying he believed the murder was linked to her work.

“The mother of two had received death threats before, but it was thought her gender and high profile might spare her the fate of others killed for writing uncomfortable truths since the fall of the Soviet Union,” says The Indepedent.

“A body found slumped in a Moscow lift. A discarded pistol and four spent shells. A mysterious thin man in a black baseball cap. The murder yesterday of the most famous reporter in Russia, is a story as sinister as anything she investigated in her fearless, award-winning career.

“The 48-year-old, lauded by journalists and writers around the world for her exposés in Chechnya, appears to have been assassinated. Her most powerful enemy was President Vladimir Putin. The murder came two days before she was due to publish an exposé of the Chechnyan Prime Minister.

“The gun found near her apartment block in central Moscow was a 9mm Makarov, known as the weapon of choice for Russian hitmen.

“Joan Smith, a columnist for this paper who knew Politkovskaya personally, said: ‘Anna had more courage than most of us can begin to imagine, and her death is a reminder of the violent state she exposed so vividly in Putin’s Russia’.”

The Los Angeles Times adds: Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who recently purchased a major interest in Novaya Gazeta, described Politkovskaya’s killing as “a savage crime against a professional and serious journalist and a courageous woman.”

While there has been no reaction from the Kremlin, the US State Department has come out with a strong statement: “Politkovskaya was personally courageous and committed to seeking justice even in the face of previous death threats.

“The United States urges the Russian government to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation in order to find, prosecute, and bring to justice all those responsible for this heinous murder (it said in a statement on its Web site www.state.gov).

“The intimidation and murder of journalists — 12 in Russia in the past six years, including American citizen Paul Klebnikov on July 9, 2004 — is an affront to free and independent media and to democratic values.”

An Associated Press report says: “The execution-style killing underlined the increasingly dangerous environment for journalists working in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, launching a crackdown on media freedoms.

“Her death brings to at least 13 the number of journalists killed in contract-style killings in the past six years, according to the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists.”

In a moving tribute, The Economist says: “She was brave beyond belief, Anna Politkovskaya, reporting a gruesome war and a creeping dictatorship with a sharp pen and steel nerves.

“It may be a chilling coincidence that she was murdered on President Vladimir Putin’s birthday, but her friends and supporters are in little doubt that her dogged, gloomy reporting of the sinister turn Russia has taken under what she called his ‘bloody’ leadership was what led to her murder in the lift of her Moscow apartment block.

“Ms Politkovskaya’s journalism was distinctive. Not for her the waffly, fawning and self-satisfied essays of the Moscow commentariat. Nor the well-paid advertorial now so pervasive as to be barely noticeable.

“She reported from the wrecked villages and shattered towns of Chechnya, talking to those on all sides and none, with endless patience and gritty determination.

“She will go down as a martyr, in the beleaguered causes of free speech and public spirit. It would be nice to think that Russians will find her example inspiring. Sadly, they may well conclude that speaking out on unpopular topics is best avoided.”