CPJ puts Russia on ninth place in "Impunity Index"

The Russian Federation was ranked the ninth among the worst ones in the "Impunity Index" compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In recent years, journalists in North Caucasus were protected less of all, the organization reports.

The "Impunity Index" compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) defines a ration of unsolved murders of journalists to the country's population. When compiling the issue, the CPJ has analyzed unsolved murders of journalists in the period starting from January 1, 2003, till December 31, 2012. The CPJ defines a murder as a wilful attack against a journalist in retaliation for his or her professional activities. A murder is considered unsolved if no guilty verdict has been pronounced in the case.

The ranking of the CPJ published on May 2 notes that in Russia, the Prosecutor's Office has secured conviction of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a former policeman, who was sentenced on charges of participating in conspiracy to murder Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known investigative journalist, an observer of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", who was murdered on October 7, 2006, in Moscow.

The ranking also quotes the opinion of Galina Sidorova, the head of the Foundation to support investigative journalism in Russia, who believes that the conviction of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov has demonstrated the success of the loud case. Meanwhile, Galina Sidorova indicates that Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov never called the persons who ordered the crime and states that "the justice has been served only by half" and that the "practice of impunity has not disappeared."

The CPJ emphasizes that in 2012, the rate of impunity in Russia was 0.099 unsolved murders of journalists per one million inhabitants; while in last year, the country was also ranked the ninth with a coefficient of 0.113. Apart from Russia, the top ten includes: Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan, and Brazil.

Since 2003, in Russia, 14 murders of journalists remain unsolved, and, in recent years, journalists in North Caucasus were less protected, the CPJ reports. It reminds that the last victim there was Kazbek Gekkiev, a journalist of the STRC (State TV and Radio Company) "Kabardino-Balkaria", who was murdered on his way home from work on December 5, 2012.