Ali Kamalov: law enforcement bodies of Dagestan deliberately refrain from investigating journalists' murders

Murders of Dagestani journalists are not investigated, because often militiamen are associated with customers of murders, said Ali Kamalov, chairman of the Union of Journalists of Dagestan, at the recent international conference in Moscow "Securing Safe Future of Journalism in Eastern Europe".

"In Dagestan, the papers that reveal the working methods of law enforcement bodies - the prosecutor's office, MIA and judicial-investigative bodies - face problems. Those people in power try to affect on what the press writes - sometimes by beatings and murders. Law enforcement bodies know all that, but cases are not investigated. Out of 12 murders of Dagestani journalists, not a single was brought to the end," Ali Kamalov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The freedom of speech in Dagestan is much higher than in the neighbouring republics, and even higher than in the entire country. The political situation is such that the republic's leaders and other top officials do not try to control the media. But there are other problems. Until recently, law enforcement and judicial-investigative authorities were beyond criticism. And when we stated writing about them, they began actively opposing the media. Basically, these are the newspaper "Chernovik" (Blueprint) and "Novoe Delo" (New Business)," said Ali Kamalov.

Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, who was present at the conference, proposed to encourage citizens of Russia to broader use of mobile phone cameras - for fixing offences and violations.

The conference in Moscow was held by a number of international organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists, the ENJN (European Neighbourhood Journalism Network), the Thomson Foundation, the Russian Union of Journalists, the Glasnost Defence Foundation, the Media Rights defence Centre and the Centre of Extreme Journalism.