Originally published on the CGS blog on May 3, 2007.
Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who criticized Vladimir Putin’s goverment – and specifically, its prosecution of the war in Chechnya – was posthumously awarded the U.N. World Press Freedom Prize. Posthumously, of course, because she was shot last October, presumably for some completely unrelated reason.
As I’ve written here before, this is no isolated incident. I hope this award brings the problem into clearer focus, as Russia is now the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists (Iraq is the first).
If you’re interested, take a look at the BBC page on this story. The comment thread, just picking up now, is particularly interesting – it features journalists from all over the world discussing press freedom and intimidation in the countries where they live.
