Crime And (Lack Of) Punishment

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Media Issues

(AP)

The strange case of Ivan Safronov, the Russian reporter who was killed when he fell from a 5th floor window, continues to develop. Prosecutors said that Safronov had likely committed suicide, but his friends and colleagues aren't buying it. (Said one: "Ivanych and suicide are two completely incompatible notions.")

It turns out that Safronov had been investigating sales of weapons by Russia to Syria and Iran. He had told colleagues he had "irrefutable confirmation" of the sales of Sukhoi-34 fighter jets to Syria and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. According to the AFP, he also said "he could not write the story immediately because he had been warned about the risk of an international scandal and an inquiry by the FSB security service for divulging secrets."

In October, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed. Many believe her murder was a direct result of her journalistic work, which had been highly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The New Yorker offered an excellent account of the story in January. Here's a bit:

Since 1999, when Vladimir Putin, a career K.G.B. officer, was, in effect, anointed as President by Boris Yeltsin, thirteen journalists have been murdered in Russia. Nearly all the deaths took place in strange circumstances, and none of them have been successfully investigated or prosecuted. In July, 2003, the investigative reporter Yuri Shchekochikhin, a well-known colleague of Politkovskaya's at Novaya Gazeta, died of what doctors described as an "allergic reaction.'' Shchekochikhin, who became famous in the Gorbachev era with his reports on the rise of a new mafia, had been investigating allegations of tax evasion against people with links to the F.S.B., the post-Soviet K.G.B. Nobody ever explained what Shchekochikhin was allergic to, and his family is convinced that he was poisoned. On July 9, 2004, Paul Klebnikov, the founding editor of the Russian edition of Forbes—who had made powerful enemies by investigating corruption among Russian business tycoons—was shot dead as he left his Moscow office.

In related news, the New York Times reports today that a new survey has found that "more than 1,000 journalists have been killed while reporting the news over the past 10 years as homicide has emerged as an increasingly popular tool for silencing them."

Journalists are more likely to be killed investigating local issues than covering combat and killers are usually not caught or punished. "The figures show that killing a journalist is virtually risk-free," Richard Sambrook, chairman of the special inquiry and global news director for BBC, told the Times.