The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the killing of a young journalist who was shot dead in Moscow alongside a Russian leading human rights lawyer.

"We condemn this senseless killing of a promising and courageous young journalist," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "While she may not have been the target, the circumstances in which she was killed prove that lawlessness and intolerance to independent and critical voices still surrounds the media in Russia."

According to media reports, Anastasia Baburova, a journalist for the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in a targeted killing in 2006, was shot dead on 19 January while talking to leading human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov in Moscow who was also killed.

Markelov, lawyer for the family of Kheda Kungayeva whose murder led to the first prosecution for the killing of a civilian during the Chechen conflict is believed to have been the main target. He also represented Politkovskaya in the past. He had just given a press conference in Moscow denouncing the release of Kungayeva's murderer from prison.

Anastasia who reported on the conflict in Chechnya as well as on neo Nazi groups in Russia had attended the press conference and was wounded when the gunman opened fire on the lawyer while she was talking to him outside a Moscow metro station. She was taken to hospital and died hours later of her injury.

For more information contact the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide