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TITLE: Committee to Protect Journalists Decries Death of Russian Reporter |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Agence France Presse |
DATE: January 9, 2001 |
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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to investigate the murder of reporter Igor Domnikov of Novaya Gazeta, a Russian twice-weekly independent newspaper that specializes in investigative pieces."After a thorough investigation ... we have concluded that Domnikov was targeted by assassins who sought to intimidate his paper," the committee said in a letter addressed to the Russian president. "We are gravely disturbed by the lack of progress in the investigation and by the apparent reluctance of police to bring the perpetrators to justice," said the letter, signed by CPJ executive director, Ann Cooper. Cooper also mentioned her concern about other Novaya Gazeta reporters, including Oleg Sultanov, who has received repeated death threats, and Oleg Lurye, who was brutally beaten outside his home last month. Domnikov, 42, a reporter and editor at the newspaper, died two months after a brutal attack in the entryway to his Moscow apartment. Novaya Gazeta specializes in investigative journalism, including high-profile corruption cases involving government officials, CPJ noted. CPJ called on Putin to "ensure that Russian authorities full investigate the murder of Domnikov" and the other cases. "We believe that the government's apparent reluctance to investigate attacks on journalists in Russia, including the three reporters for Novaya Gazeta, could lead to unscrupulous individuals to believe that can intimidate the press with impunity," the letter said. CPJ's call comes as Vladimir Gusinsky, whose Media-MOST empire is the biggest independent media group in Russia, continues to fight Russian prosecutors trying to secure his extradition from Spain on embezzlement charges. Gusinsky's supporters argue the case against him is politically motivated. Gusinsky has been hounded by Russian investigators for much of the year after his respected newspaper, radio and television holdings took a critical view of Putin's military campaign in the rebel republic of Chechnya. He was briefly jailed over the summer on fraud charges that were quickly and inexplicably dropped after his arrest sparked condemnation around the world about the state of press freedoms in Russia. The United States has warned the Kremlin that it is following developments in Gusinsky's case amid heightened fears that Putin is seeking to muzzle his critics in the media. END |