Russia: UN Rights Chief Says Novaya Gazeta Closure Is Another Blow to Independent Media
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on October 30 that he was deeply concerned and saddened by the announcement that day that Russia's highly respected and fiercely independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper is being forced to close, calling it another devastating blow for remaining independent media in the Russian Federation.
Türk said independent journalism in Russia has faced mounting restrictions and pressure for many years, which have intensified significantly since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, through increasingly restrictive legislation, tighter state controls and the harassment and persecution of journalists.
Throughout its history, he said, Novaya Gazeta and its journalists have made an exceptional contribution to independent reporting and the defence of human rights, often at great personal risk; its journalists have faced harassment, lawsuits, threats and direct violence, among them Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in 2006 after reporting on human rights violations during Russia's military operations in Chechnya.
Türk said the broad clampdown on free media, including the so-called foreign agent law, has deeply chilling effects on the exercise of civil and political rights, and called on the Russian authorities to stop applying measures which stifle reporting on serious issues of legitimate public concern and to allow full and free debate with a diversity of voices.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：报社编辑部（资料图），Marjory Collins 摄，Wikimedia Commons，公共领域 / Photo: newspaper newsroom, by Marjory Collins, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
