Campaign against Impunity in Russia
Every year across the globe, scores of journalists are targeted, brutalised and killed by unruly or ill-disciplined soldiers or by crooks and hired assassins.
The IFJ has over many years gathered and published information on these murders, in particular focusing on the failure of governments to bring killers of journalists to justice.
According to the International News Safety Institute (INSI), one thousand journalists were killed in the ten years (1996 – 2006) as a result of their work. Shockingly, nine out of ten murderers are not even prosecuted, making the killing of journalists a cheap, easy and virtually risk free method of silencing critics.
During the Moscow World Congress in 2007, the IFJ launched an investigation into the deaths of the three hundred Russian journalists killed since 1993. The resulting report, ‘Partial Justice: an Investigation into the Deaths of Journalists in Russia since 1993’ was launched in Moscow in June 2009.
- It found that of the 313 registered deaths and disappearances of journalists from 1993 to 15 June 2009
- Up to 124 of these deaths (in work-related accidents, crossfire situations and homicides) were certainly or probably a direct result of their journalism;
- There was no doubt that 19 journalists had been murdered for their investigations and publications.
- In another 19 cases there was more or less strong evidence to suggest that journalists had been killed for their work, but these deaths had not been properly investigated and, more disturbing, most of them occurred far from Moscow ;
- The remaining 189 fatalities and disappearances appear to be unrelated to the work of the reporters, editors, cameramen and photographers.
The report calls for measures to tackle the total impunity that exists in parts of the country and makes specific recommendations to the authorities to improve their record of investigating journalists’ deaths including:
- Establishing a nationwide database on crimes against journalists.
- Bringing in outside investigative teams for contract killings.
- Making results of police investigations accessible for review by victim’s families and lawyers.
- Consider making the killing of a journalist a more serious offence.
Please click here for the Partial Justice Report in English
Please click here for the Partial Justice Report in Russian
The IFJ has also developed a database at http://www.journalists-in-russia.org/ which records all the cases of dead Russian journalists, how they died and the status of the investigation into their deaths. It is an increasingly important tool in the fight against impunity.
