Journalistic Oppression of Russia

"Three can keep a secret, if the other two are dead." - (Lavigne, 1987)

Summary

Russia has long been subjected to a detrimental state of oligarchy; innate within its political infrastructure since Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) implemented an authoritarian regime in the late 1920's. Almost a century on and after two decades since the fall of the soviet union, Russia's opaque infrastructure continues to make room for arbitrary rule; resulting in the growth of impunity amongst it's bureaucratic officials. Under this immunity, it is by no surprise that the emancipated few's callous behaviour has gone unpunished; however, that is not to say their actions have gone unquestioned. Unfortunately, the fascist state operates a strict policy on what they consider to be contentious journalism: reporters deemed as treacherous find themselves blacklisted from the state-run mainstream media, thus curtailing their work of any public exposure and in turn compromising its validity. Furthermore, despite vehement outcry from the international community, Russia's continued negligence towards the safety of its journalists has resulted in countless deaths and disappearances. Such ignorance has also resulted in short-comings at all levels of law enforcement including: prosecutorial, investigative and judicial. This impotence causes one to ponder: "To what extent are these cases being investigated?"; "Why have we not been made aware of this problem?" and most importantly: "What could these journalists have possibly been investigating to warrant such heinous actions?"

Introduction

In Russia, there's a price to pay for your civil liberties; with none coming at a greater cost than ones freedom of speech. Since 1993, over three hundred journalists have chosen to exercise this right; focusing on controversial matters such as the corruption of Kremlin officials and their entrepreneurial interests. Subsequently, according to a 2009 report conducted by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) entitled "Partial Justice" (IFJ, 2009: 3), there have been over "three hundred deaths and disappearances of journalists in Russia between 1993 and 2009." Is it by coincidence that these controversial inquiries involving such paramount bureaucratic and political powers have resulted in so many deaths and disappearances? Or is there a possible link between them?

Methods of Investigation

Using information provided by the CPJ and IFJ, I will exhume evidence to highlight the correlation between the suspicious deaths of three journalists and the nature of their investigations. Furthermore, I will conduct two small scale surveys on the British public; one being an informative and neutral questionnaire and the other being a vague, but bias one.

The aim of the experiment is twofold. Firstly, each questionnaire will highlight the current level of awareness on the subject matter, which directly relates to significant media coverage or lack thereof. Secondly, the questionnaires will endeavour to show whether a volunteer's response can be influenced by the context of the information he/she is given, irrespective of the detail involved; thus demonstrating how the information is presented can affect viewpoint, which directly corresponds to how the media cover a chosen topic.

Findings

In September 2009, the CPJ published a report entitled "Anatomy of Injustice" in which they described Russia (2009: 3) as "...one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press (ranked third worldwide) and one of the worst nations in solving crimes against the press (ranked ninth worst)." By citing seventeen cases of Journalist deaths since the year 2000, the CPJ asserted that these deaths were not mere coincidences, and that each journalist shared one significant commonality; that they had either: published damaging articles abundant with corruption allegations towards the bureaucratic and political officials of the state, and/or were already in the midst of investigating such scandals. Amongst the most prominent of these killings were the cases of Anna Politkovskaya, Yuri Shchekochikhin and Magomed Yevloyev; three journalists renowned for their controversial subject matter.

The following is the CPJ's brief summary of each journalist's death and work:

"Anna Politkovskaya, who produced devastating reports on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus for Novaya Gazeta. An assassin gunned her down in her Moscow apartment building on October 7 2006."

"Yuri Shchekochikhin, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, who for two years meticulously uncovered a complex international corruption scheme. He was felled by a mysterious illness and died July 3 2003. His medical records were classified a state secret."

"Magomed Yevloyev, publisher of the Independent News website Ingushetiya, to expose official corruption and human rights crimes in the rest of southern republic. He was shot and killed in state custody on August 31 2008."

Case studies

The following is a summarized version of the Anatomy of Injustice account of Anna Politkovskaya's, Yuri Shchekochikhin's and Magomed Yevloyev's journalistic agendas.

Anna Politkovskaya had been threatened, jailed, exiled and even poisoned throughout what proved to be an eloquent, but albeit controversial career. Although recognised internationally for her writing and human rights activism, Politkovskaya was relatively unknown of in Russia; partially due to the exclusion of her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, from the mainstream press. Politkovskaya was a harsh critic of then President Vladimir Putin and his administration, accusing the government of gross negligence towards the war-torn North Caucasus region. Despite numerous death threats, Politkovskaya never fled Russia, opting to remain in the country and continue reporting until her subsequent death on October 7, 2006, when she was gunned down outside of her Moscow apartment. Her killers still remain at large.

Yuri Shchekochikhin was in the process of uncovering an intricate corruption racket revolving around a Moscow furniture company by the name of Liga Mars, with indications that high ranking government officials from the likes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the Federal Security Service (FSB) were involved. Shchekochikhin had accused the company of money laundering and arms smuggling, and cited a transcript of a wiretapped conversation