Published on 3 July 2009
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President Barack H. Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20520 cc: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton US Department of State 2201 C Street NW , DC 20500
Paris, 1 July 2009
Dear President Obama,
As you are about to visit Russia at President Dmitri Medvedev’s invitation, the international press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders would like to draw your attention to the frequency of crimes of violence against journalists in Russia and the prevailing impunity for those responsible.
Russia is currently ranked 141st out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. According to our research, at least 20 journalists have been killed in connection with their work since Vladimir Putin became president in March 2000. The latest victim was local newspaper editor Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, who died on 29 June of injuries received in April.
Harassment and attacks on journalists have increased since mid-2008. Three cases in particular have shocked us. Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetia.org website, was shot dead in Ingushetia in August 2008 after being illegally arrested. Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a local newspaper near Moscow, had to have a leg and several fingers amputated after being badly beaten in November. Anastasia Baburova, a young Novaya Gazeta reporter, was fatally shot in the head in downtown Moscow in January.
This violence, which does not spare the capital, is even more marked in the Russian Caucasus. The report of a fact-finding visit to Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia that Reporters Without Borders issued on 25 June highlighted the deplorable circumstances in which journalists work in these republics and the almost complete absence of press freedom there. As you may know, two of the journalists gunned down in Moscow in the past five years, Paul Khlebnikov in 2004 and Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, had spent much of their time covering Chechnya for Russian and international readers.
Neither of these murders has been effectively investigated. The fifth anniversary of the death of Khlebnikov, a US citizen who edited the Russian edition of Forbes, is on 9 July. The judicial authorities suspended the Khlebnikov investigation at the end of May because of their inability to identify a suspect, although they subsequently told relatives it would be relaunched. The acquittal in February of three alleged accomplices to the Politkovskaya murder was overturned last week. The investigation continues but without convincing results as regards the masterminds, although that is the key issue.
We understand that relations between the United States and Russia are not limited to the issues of human rights and the rule of law. But it would be wrong to ignore them. Russia is an inescapable presence on the international stage and if it wants to be seen as a reliable partner and factor for stability, it must pledge to do more to respect human rights and freedoms.
Your words will carry more weight as US-Russian relations enter a new phase and we therefore urge you, during your talks with Russian government officials, to raise the issue of violence against journalists, especially the cases mentioned in this letter, and the impunity enjoyed by those responsible.
We thank you in advance for giving this matter your attention and we look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Jean-François Julliard Secretary-General
He is the editor of Erk, the last opposition newspaper in Uzbekistan until it was banned by the authorities in 1993, and he was jailed on 18 August 1999 in the wave of repression after the failed assassination attempt on President Islam Karimov in Tashkent on 16 February 1999.
