Committee to Protect Journalists Urges Russia to Lift Bans on International Journalists

This article, from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, revolves around the idea press freedom, or specifically the lack thereof in Russia. It talks of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urging Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to lift bans that recently denied several international journalists, including British journalist Thomas de Waal who is an editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, entry into the country. These journalists had worked in the country regularly. CPJ excutive director Joel Simon said that Russian authorities used a law to ban the entry of these international journalists. This law implies that journalists represent a threat to the country, though it doesn't explain how, according to Simon. Simon also notes that since 2000, 40 journalists have been denied entry into or deported from Russia, according to statistics from the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (press freedom group.

I found this article extremely interesting and relevent to our group's case study involving the murder of a Russian journalist. Though less extreme, this ban of the entry of international journalists into Russia really reflects how little press freedom the country actually has. Rankings on the CPJ and Freedom House websites, among others, prove that the country pretty much has no press freedom. The law mentioned by Simon in the article implies that journalist prove to be a threat to the country-- this within itself implies that Russia doesn't want certain activities and ideas being reported on and this is a complete disregard to freedom of the press. This article proves that Russia is not improving in the areas of press freedom, but rather remaining static or even deteriorating.

By Lauren Chapman