Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Russia's 'Novaya gazeta' Wins International Prize

$The front page of \$

The front page of "Novaya Gazeta" the day after Anna Politkovskaya was killed (epa)

December 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Russia's independent "Novaya gazeta" newspaper has been awarded the Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France prize.

TEXT SIZE - +

December 13, 2006

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media watchdog, said the bi-weekly "Novaya gazeta" exemplifies "the struggle for the right to inform the public and to be informed."

"Novaya gazeta" is the newspaper for which Anna Politkovskaya was working when she was murdered in Moscow in October. Two other "Novaya gazeta" journalists, Igor Domnikov and Yury Shchekochikhin, have been murdered since the paper's founding in 1993.

Elsa Vidal, the head of the Europe and former Soviet Union desk at RSF, said the watchdog decided to give the award to "Novaya gazeta" "to celebrate its huge commitment toward press freedom and all the sacrifices its staff have made to the work of journalists."

Vidal says that she expects the media situation to worsen in Russia ahead of the 2008 presidential election.

The annual prize seeks to draw public attention to attacks on media freedom.

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More