Harlem Désir: Impunity for crimes against journalists in Russia is serious threat to media freedom
On the eleventh anniversary of the killing of Novaya gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya,OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, urged the Russian authorities to make more efforts to end impunity for crimes committed against journalists. “Despite pledges at the top political level, the majority of killings of journalists in Russia remain unsolved, which is a very serious threat to media freedom. I do acknowledge the progress made in the case of Politkovskaya’s murder, but more still needs to be done,” Désir said. “It is unacceptable that the masterminds behind her and other journalists’ assassination remain at large. This vicious circle of impunity has a continuing effect on the situation of media freedom in Russia,” the Representative said. Politkovskaya was shot and killed in Moscow on 7 October 2006. In 2003, she received the OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy for her courageous professional work in support of “human rights and freedom of the media”.
