Russian reporters equipped with weapons while at work

The number of reporters in Moscow that are being attacked and beaten up has increased dramatically, and the incidents are rarely investigated by the police.

Chief editor Dmitry Mouratov welcomes the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK in his office in centre of Moscow. He is very serious and concerned.

Two journalists attacked in November

Only in November, two prominent journalists have been seriously beaten on the street. 

On 4 November, activist Konstantin Fetisov was attacked with a baseball bat and is still in a coma. Just two days later it happened again, Kommersant reporter and blogger Oleg Kashin was found in a pool of blood outside his house. Unconscious, he was taken to the hospital where doctors found him to have two jaw breaks, a broken bone, blood in the lungs and fractures of the skull. The assailants had also made sure to break several of his fingers.

The incidents have upset most newspapers in Moscow. At the Novaya Gazeta, the Chief Editor fears a new wave of journalist-violence.

Self-Censorship

“The best thing is self-censorship. Do not write about neo-Nazis, do not do investigative journalism about corruption and do not mention the Russian Federal Security (FSB). Then you will be safe. But such censorship is impossible for our newspaper, "says Mouratov.

The Chief Editor believes it is the police’s responsibility that it is safe to do critical investigative journalism. But there is very little evidence that the government cares about the abuses.

Over the past five years, 350 journalists in Russia have been attacked and 41 killed. Less than half of the cases are solved, including the killing of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a case that received much coverage in international media.

Must protect journalists

“None of the 31 assault cases so far this year have ended up in court. Therefore it is up to the editors to do their best to protect their journalists," says Mouratov.

“Sometimes our employees get bodyguards appointed, as our former correspondent in Sochi, Sergey Solovsky. He had to move to Germany and live undercover after he was the victim of a murder attempt,” he says.

“A part from this, we also have to take other unpleasant measures. Today we have purchased and will hand out electroshock weapons to around 20 journalists so that they can protect themselves," says the editor.

It is the newspaper’s 20 reporters writing about neo-Nazis, corruption and the secret police who get the weapons first. These are the most dangerous issues. Who is behind the attacks is still unknown, but according to the journalists themselves, football hooligans are often hired to scare newspapers into silence.

“We always have about 10 journalists in danger. We find that the most critical phase is when the story is finished and ready to run. At this point all involved parties know what story we are about to print.”

Sochi Olympics

When asked if he thinks covering corruption related to the Sochi Olympics will be dangerous, the editor takes a long pause before he speaks.

The newspaper has just been sued for libel and fined 100.000 rubles for this summer's story revealing that a businessman had paid millions of rubles in bribes to employees in the Kremlin to obtain and keep construction contracts in Sochi. (See Sochi contractor speaks out on widespread corruption)

“We must remember that Sochi 2014 is a prestigious project of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He is protected by many so-called siloviki, police and other security people. It is very difficult for our reporters to map the situation in Sochi and as such it is not safe,” says Mouratov.

This article first appeared on nrk.no (in Norwegian) on 25 November 2010 and is republished at playthegame.org with kind permission from the author and NRK. Original version: www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7396621