CPJ: Northern Caucasus is a hazardous area and potentially dangerous topic for independent journalists

Today, the report of the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) "Anatomy of Impunity: Unsolved Murders of Journalists in Russia" was made public in Moscow; mostly, the report is on Northern Caucasus.

"The journalists who are covering the events in Chechnya and in the neighbouring republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia are forced to shut up," runs the report, which will be handed over by CPJ representatives to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev.

"In the list of the most hazardous areas for the work of the media only Iraq and Algeria are ahead of Russia. From 2000, in Russia seventeen journalists were assassinated by gunmen, and only in one case culprits were made answerable," this is the start of the report, presented today in the Independent Press Centre in Prechistenka.

The CPJ's report states that "in today's Russia the actions of the rulers are more and more often hidden from those whom they rule. It is worrying that deaths of persistent and fearless truth advocates from bullets of hired murderers arouse Russians' reaction in the form of collective shrugging shoulders. The overwhelming majority of Russians receive the news pre-treated by the state; and for this reason almost no angry voices about these murders are heard."

According to the document, Russia takes the third place in the world by the number of murders of journalists, and the ninth - by the number of unsolved murders of media workers.

"We are concerned why the professions of journalist and human rights advocate are fatally hazardous in our country. Of course, there are no grounds to state that these murders had been sanctioned by top officials; however, the atmosphere that exists in the country contributes to general tension. In their decisions on the cases, involving defence of honour and dignity of criticized bureaucrats, judges are appointing such damage compensations, which entail termination of mass media, since they cannot afford the sums," said Liudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, at the press conference held on the occasion of the report, where the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was present.