We republish an excerpt from Giorgio Fornoni’s video research on the risks journalists face in Russia. The summary includes an interview with Elena Milashina, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, who was repeatedly threatened and assaulted, finally kidnapped and beaten in Chechnya on Tuesday July 4 and hospitalized in Moscow.
Elena Milashina, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, was brutally attacked by armed men in balaclavas while on her way to Grozny, Chechnya, to assist and defend a woman she believed was unfairly persecuted. In Russia you cannot be a journalist if you have a straight back, if you seek and denounce evil to defend the weakest and stand up for the truth.
Anna Politkovskaya’s heiress
Elena was employed by Novaya Gazeta and had taken the place of Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed by five pistol shots by an assassin in the lobby of her building. He worked hard because Politkovskaya had become a symbol in the world, an example of true journalism. Threatened several times, brutally beaten several times and repeatedly urged by her director Muratov to change jobs because the risk to her life was now too high. Milashina, like Politkovskaya, condemned the abuses of Russian soldiers, emphasizing human dignity and respect for life.
The first two lines
Being a journalist in Russia means having to face two front lines… one is that of “war”, the other is the risk of having an assassin waiting for you at any moment. Elena’s worth is attested by the many awards she has received throughout her career. What matters is what Human Rights Watch recognized for “personal courage and fighting corruption and for respect for human rights in Russia.” Today, people in Chechnya seem to live in peace because the hard fist of Kadyrov, a great Putin ally, sows terror and fear. The malice used against them, hurting and disfiguring them, could be a final warning.