Some 220 Journalists Died In Russia In The Last 15 Years - Right Campaigners
MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - In the past two months alone three journalists have been killed in Russia, head of the monitoring service of the Glasnost Defense Foundation Boris Timoshenko told Interfax on Monday.
He said that two journalists were killed in March (Ivan Safronov of the Kommersant daily, Moscow, and Leonid Etkind, the founder and editor- in-chief of the Career newspaper in Saratov). Another journalist (Vyacheslav Ifanov, a photographer with the New Television studio in Aleisk in the Altai territory) was killed in early April.
"Vyacheslav was found dead in his own garage. According to witnesses' accounts, he had traces of violence on his face. The prosecutor's office said that no signs indicating that he had died of a violent death were found," Timoshenko said.
He also reminded the audience that another two journalists were killed in Russia in January.
"The number of journalists killed in Russia since 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union has already reached 219 people," Timoshenko said.
Timoshenko said that according to the Foundation's figures there were seven assaults against journalists in March, six criminal cases against journalists and media outlets were registered, and 21 instances of detention of journalists by police were recorded.
Journalists and media outlets faced 20 lawsuits totaling 24,470,000 rubles in March, as well, and six earlier lawsuits had been heard. Three of these suits were won by the plaintiffs, and 226,500 rubles had to be paid to them in compensation for moral damages.
The Foundation's Monitoring Service also said that last month saw cases of denial of access to information, threats against journalists and media outlets, refusal to print (distribute) media, blackouts, and the shutting down of broadcasting operations.
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