The appeal was signed by 32 states, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Ukraine, Australia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Chile, Japan, and Spain, reports Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Participants in the Coalition for Media Freedom called on the Russian authorities to hold all those responsible for Anna Politkovskaya’s murder accountable. The document states that impunity for crimes against journalists and media workers is unacceptable.
The signatories also demanded that journalists and media workers be guaranteed the ability to carry out their work freely and safely, that all those unjustly detained and convicted be released, and that transnational persecution and the criminalization of journalistic activity be brought to an end. The statement is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the murder of the Novaya Gazeta journalist.
The authors of the appeal noted that over the past 20 years the Russian authorities have restricted media freedom. According to them, after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the repression intensified significantly.
Among the tools of pressure they named the statuses of “foreign agents” and “undesirable” organizations, threats, detentions, in absentia criminal cases, and lengthy prison terms. The signatories also expressed solidarity with journalists who, despite censorship, persecution, restrictive legislation, and forced emigration, continue to cover Russia’s war against Ukraine and investigate corruption, repression, and human rights violations.
Separate statements on the anniversary of the murder were published by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU delegation in Russia, the European External Action Service, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Press Institute. The European External Action Service recalled that Russian courts convicted six people for involvement in the murder, but the verdicts did not establish who ordered it, and the International Press Institute called for the creation of an independent international mechanism to investigate crimes against journalists.
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