15/11/2010 Culture, Science, Education and Media
Markku Laukkanen, Chairman of PACE Sub-Committee on the Media, strongly condemned the recent violent attacks on two Russian journalists, Oleg Kashin of the newspaper Kommersant and Anatoly Adamchuk of the newspaper Zhukovskie Vesti. “It is an alarming sign that two critical journalists are attacked physically in Russia within one week”, said Mr Laukkanen, “and I welcome the declaration by the Russian President, Dimitry Medvedev, that whoever is responsible for this crime will be punished regardless of their position. I really hope that the Russian authorities will seriously investigate these incidents.”
“Freedom of expression in the media is an essential tool for the people to make informed decisions in a democracy and to hold their elected representatives politically accountable. When journalists are attacked physically for their work, any member state of the Council of Europe must make sure that the perpetrators are investigated and tried by a court of law. This is an obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights.”
“The Russian judiciary still has to shed light on the murders of Paul Klebnikov in 2004, Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 and Natalia Estemirova in 2009 as well as the brutal attack against Mikhail Beketov in 2008, which left him severely injured for life and bound to a wheelchair”, said Mr Laukkanen. “It is undermining the rule of law in Russia, if impunity reigns de facto for severe assaults on politically critical journalists.”