RUSSIA: Slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya laid to rest

Russia said farewell on Tuesday (October 10) to investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was killed on Saturday (October 7) in her apartment by an unknown gunman. Friends, colleagues, family and fans accompanied the slain journalist's body to Moscow's Treyukorvsky cemetery, after a solemn church service. "I have read all of her articles and absolutely share her stance. Very few journalists like her are left," said Sergei, a 'Novaya Gazeta' reader. The newspaper where she worked, Novaya Gazeta, has offered almost $1 million for information leading to the arrest of her killers. Her murder has met with widespread international condemnation of the murder, and once again cast doubt on a lack of freedom of the press in Russia. A gunman shot Politkovskaya, one of President Vladimir Putin's strongest critics, four times as she brought her shopping home to her Moscow apartment on Saturday evening. The 48-year-old mother of two died on the spot. Putin on Monday (October 9) gave the first official Russian reaction to Politkovskaya's murder, although his comments were confined to an account of a telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush. "In the course of the conversation Putin stressed that Russia's law-enforcement bodies will take every step to investigate objectively the tragic death of the journalist Politkovskaya," a Kremlin statement said. Russian investigators and commentators believe Politkovskaya's fiercely critical reporting motivated the killing. Her death has drawn international condemnation. No one has been convicted for the last high-profile killing of a journalist in Russia. U.S. reporter Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, who was shot dead in 2004. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says Russia is the third-deadliest country in the world for journalists in the past 15 years, behind only Iraq and Algeria. Forty-two journalists have died in Russia since 1992, many slain in contract-style killings which have remained unsolved. Editors said Politkovskaya was working on a story about human rights abuses by government forces fighting separatist rebels in the violent southern province of Chechnya at the time of her death. Although Politkovskaya's aggressive reporting of atrocities in Chechnya brought her international fame, the mainstream Russian media rarely gave her airtime. Novaya Gazeta has a circulation of 171,000 in a country of 140 million people. Most Russians get their news from television, where all the main channels toe a pro-Kremlin line. Russian television has reported Politkovskaya's death prominently, noting that she had won international recognition for criticising government policies in Chechnya. But it did not mention her withering and highly personal criticism of Putin.

ITN Source | October 11, 2006

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