Russian Forbes editor’s killing looks like latest strike in war on journalists

Posted by Bertrand Pecquerie on July 17, 2004 at 12:29 AM

For abcnews "The American editor of the Russian edition of Forbes said he believed the troubled country was entering a new era where businesses would not be run like mafia crime families, but when he was gunned down outside his Moscow office, the killing had all the signs of a mob hit. Paul Klebnikov, 41, who opened the Russian edition of Forbes this spring, was gunned down Friday as he was leaving work. The professional-style slaying of a journalist is all too common in Russia, where by some counts as many as 200 reporters have been killed since the collapse of the Soviet Union 13 years ago. In just a handful of those cases has anyone been convicted, a failure that human and journalists' rights groups say is a result of a combination of police and governmental corruption and an antipathy among officials toward journalists, especially those doing investigative work. "There is a problem that those in power don't want a free press," said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalists in Extreme Situations, a Moscow-based group that works to promote the development of free, independent media in Russia.

Source: abcnews. See also Moscow News and former posting.

Posted in :