Russia
Putin promises to protect press in RussiaPosted Feb 25 2007
At a press conference on Feb. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to protect the press in response to international protest over investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Putin also acknowledged the importance of Politknovskaya’s work. “For our country … the issue of journalist persecution is one of the most pressing. And we realize our degree of responsibility in this,” Putin said, according to CJR. “We will do everything to protect the press corps.” Putin spoke to domestic and foreign journalists for over three hours, talking about Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes-Russia. CJR reports Putin saying, “I remember not only Anna Politkovskaya – she was a rather sharp critic of authorities, and this is good – I remember other journalists, too, including Paul Klebnikov. Recently one of our American partners said some very true words: ‘Paul Klebnikov died for a democratic Russia, for the development of democracy in Russia,’ I completely agree with this assessment.”
For more information on this, see the CJR Web site: http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/europe/russia01feb07na.html