In response to the IFJ appeal, the U.S.-based media freedom nonprofit, FreeMediaOnline.org, has called on the Russian authorities to stop their repressive actions aimed against independent journalists. FreeMediaOnline.org is also urging the U.S. government to reverse questionable decisions affecting the media situation in Russia made by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages U.S.-funded international broadcasts to media-at-risk countries. Since its founding in 2006, FreeMediaOnline.org has been publicizing the dangers facing Russian journalists. Those at risk include managers and reporters of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, RFE/RL, many of whom are Russian citizens who work and live in Russia with their families within easy reach of the Kremlin's secret police. FreeMediaOnline.org president Ted Lipien said that in light of the extreme dangers facing journalists in Russia, many are alarmed by the recent decision of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors to terminate all Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language radio broadcasts. These broadcasts originating in Washington, D.C., which helped to limit the Kremlin's media monopoly by featuring on air discussions of human rights abuses, ended on July 26 on orders from the BBG, just 12 days before the Russian military forces attacked Georgia. They have not been resumed despite protests and demands from VOA journalists, members of Congress, and press freedom groups. This BBG decision, Lipien said, makes RFE/RL and all other journalists in Russia more vulnerable to blackmail by the Russian security services and represents a victory for those responsible for Anna Politkovskaya's murder. FreeMediaOnline.org urged journalists and supporters of media freedom to mark the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's death. The media freedom nonprofit also asked that they register their protest against the Broadcasting Board of Governors' decisions by sending emails to the BBG executive director Jeff Trimble: publicaffairs@bbg.gov.

A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO RUSSIAN JOURNALIST COLLEAGUES ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE MURDER OF ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA FROM WILLIAM HORSLEY, MEDIA FREEDOM REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS This is my message to members of the Russian Union of Journalists as the Media Freedom Representative of the Association of European Journalists:- "Journalists across the whole of Europe join our Russian colleagues, on the second anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s death, in mourning her loss and condemning those responsible for her murder. It is urgent and absolutely necessary for the Russian authorities to administer swift, impartial justice in order to hold her killer or killers accountable for that crime, and for the many other crimes of violence committed against journalists in the Russian Federation in the past several years. The delays and some displays of apparent indifference by the authorities in dealing with the long series of such shocking crimes contradicts the Russian government’s solemn commitments and its international obligations. Every act of violence and intimidation of journalists, including those directed against who expose embarrassing truths, is an offence against the whole society where it takes place. When freedom of the media and freedom of expression are damaged or attacked a country loses the capacity to know itself, and the foundations of a just society may crumble or be destroyed. Free inquiry and free expression, within the just limits of law, are valued beyond price in democratic societies. We commend our many Russian colleagues who work with integrity and conscience to report without fear or favour on all the news and information media. Your work is greatly admired and vitally important. We join you in spirit on this anniversary, in memory of an exceptionally brave and important searcher after truth." William Horsley, London. October 5 2008