There are no witnesses to what happened to Mikhail Beketov when he returned home on the night of Nov. 13, but the beating that left him in a coma for two weeks must have been brutal. Beketov, the owner and editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda, a local newspaper, was found by a neighbor more than 24 hours later, lying in a pool of his own blood outside his home in Khimki, a town just northwest of Moscow, with fractured limbs and severe frostbite. "This was a result of his professional activities, because he did not have a comfortable relationship with the mayor's office," said Vladimir Kursa, his half-brother. On Saturday and Sunday, more than 1,000 people gathered in Khimki and Moscow to protest the attack on Beketov, most of them pointing the finger at the administration of Khimki mayor Vladimir Strelchenko. Oleg Mitvol, until recently a senior figure at of the country's environmental watchdog, agreed. "Beketov is already the third editor to end up in intensive care," he told the more than 100 protesters gathered outside Chistiye Prudy metro station. ...
The Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov knew the risks he was taking. <...> Beketov continued to publish his newspaper, Khimkinskaya Pravda, which regularly lambasted local officials for corruption and abuse. Finally, it seems, the administration had had enough. On November 11 a gang lay in wait outside his home. When he returned, they savagely attacked him with clubs, breaking his fingers and skull, and leaving him for dead. <...> ... Beketov's fate is a graphic illustration of the dangers of working as a journalist in Vladimir Putin's Russia. His story is depressingly typical: according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Russia is now the third most dangerous place in the world to work as a reporter, after Iraq and Algeria. <...> Investigators have failed to find Politkovskaya's killer or the person who ordered her murder. Indeed, those responsible for the murder of journalists in Russia are never caught. (There has been only one prosecution.) According to the CPJ, investigators are reluctant to solve cases - fearing for their own safety, as the trail invariably leads back to those in power. "There are a number of taboo topics for journalists in Russia," says Nina Ognianova, the CPJ's programme coordinator in Europe and Central Asia. These include writing about corruption inside the Kremlin and Russia's secretive spy agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), she says. Also off-limits is Russia's North Caucasus - a subject Poltikovskaya addressed repeatedly with her criticism of human rights abuses in Chechnya. ...
The Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov knew the risks he was taking. <...>
Beketov continued to publish his newspaper, Khimkinskaya Pravda, which regularly lambasted local officials for corruption and abuse. Finally, it seems, the administration had had enough. On November 11 a gang lay in wait outside his home. When he returned, they savagely attacked him with clubs, breaking his fingers and skull, and leaving him for dead. <...>
... Beketov's fate is a graphic illustration of the dangers of working as a journalist in Vladimir Putin's Russia. His story is depressingly typical: according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Russia is now the third most dangerous place in the world to work as a reporter, after Iraq and Algeria. <...>
Investigators have failed to find Politkovskaya's killer or the person who ordered her murder. Indeed, those responsible for the murder of journalists in Russia are never caught. (There has been only one prosecution.) According to the CPJ, investigators are reluctant to solve cases - fearing for their own safety, as the trail invariably leads back to those in power.
"There are a number of taboo topics for journalists in Russia," says Nina Ognianova, the CPJ's programme coordinator in Europe and Central Asia. These include writing about corruption inside the Kremlin and Russia's secretive spy agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), she says. Also off-limits is Russia's North Caucasus - a subject Poltikovskaya addressed repeatedly with her criticism of human rights abuses in Chechnya. ...
