07 Oct 10 | Index Index, minipost
Detectives with the federal Investigative Committee say they are examining an expanded circle of suspects in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
The new suspects are said to be ethnic Chechens who wanted to get on the good side of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. There is no evidence directly linking Kadyrov to the case. The original defendants are still considered as suspects.
Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin told CPJ on 28 September that his agency was mistaken in “rushing” a previous case to trial.
24 Jun 10 | News and features
Independent Radio station Ekho Moskvy is well known in Russia as a bastion of free speech. Editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov tells Maria Eismont about everyday dealing with death threats, censorship and the Kremlin
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11 May 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Local officials summoned four journalists for questioning as part of their investigation into alleged slandering of a senior KGB officer. Police recently searched the homes of four journalists and seized their computers as part of the investigation into internet reports that claimed KGB officers had fabricated a case against a local police officer. Natalia Radzina of Index on Censorship award nominees charter97.org, Irina Khalip of Novaya Gazeta, and Svetlana Kalinkina and Marina Koktysh of Novaya Volya are awaiting the results of investigations into files stored on their computers, which have still not been returned to them. In a separate development, sources at charter97.org say that a second slander case has been brought against them involving comments posted by users on their website.
20 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Microsoft has denied claims that its staff were involved in the silencing of internet television station Stan TV, which was raided by police on April 1. Initial reports claimed the police were accompanied by a Microsoft representative, who came armed with an order from Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General’s office authorising him to seal the station’s equipment. The order alleged that Stan Media LLC was using pirated Microsoft software.
The use of anti-piracy legislation by local law enforcement agencies to legitimise harassment of the independent media is becoming more frequent in ex-Soviet republics, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In November 2007, the Samara edition of award-winning Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta was effectively shut down due to accusations that the company was using unlicensed Microsoft software. In 2008, Vyatsky Nablyudatel was subject of similar allegations, but took the decision to move over to open-source software to beat the regulations, as its editor reported in Index on Censorship magazine at the time.
