Reporter
receives courage award
By Toby Lewis
On-line Forty-Niner
Anna
Politkovskaia is a Russian journalist who
has been arrested, threatened and accused
of being a spy by the Russian military.
She is known for her investigative reporting,
documenting attacks against the civilian
population in Chechnya by the Russian military.
Wednesday she received the International
Women’s Media Foundation’s Award for Courage
in Journalism at the 13th annual awards
show, which was held at the Beverly Wilshire
in Los Angeles.
Politkovskaia was on campus Tuesday and
spoke on the fifth floor of the University
Library about the war in Chechnya and struggling
to report the truth against a government
that suppresses free press.
Politkovskaia spoke about the attacks she
has witnessed by the Russian military and
security forces, who are mostly former KGB
members, against the Chechen people.
Chechnya is an oil-rich province of Russia
located in the southwestern part of the
country close to Iran and Turkey.
Violence erupted in Chechnya in 1994 when
the province wanted to secede from the Russian
Federation to form an independent Muslim
state.
The Russian government claims that Chechen
terrorists are responsible for a number
of bombings that have taken the lives of
civilians in Moscow and other parts of the
country.
Politkovskaia said that the war in Chechnya
is primarily the result of the political
campaign of the Russian president, Vladimir
Putin.
The war was started as a political campaign
to put Putin in power, she said.
In her presentation, Politkovskaia also
spoke of corruption in the present Putin
administration with regard to the media.
Anna said that Putin, who is the former
head of the KGB, has harassed and almost
completely shut down all Russian independent
media. “The papers only tell one side,”
she said.
She has been a special correspondent for
Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper,
since 1999 and has been a witness to the
war in Chechnya for over three years.
Earlier this year, Politkovskaia found herself
detained by Russian security forces when
she began to question authorities about
attacks on civilians in Chechnya.
“I
have a simple rule,” Politkovskaia said.
“I only report what I see with my own eyes,”
Anna said.
Politkovskaia said that the war in Chechnya
is a war filled with lies and that she has
learned to not trust anyone. “I check everything
myself,” she said.
Students who attended had mixed reactions
to the journalist’s talk
“I am here out of interest in the situation
there,” said Emily Paul, a CSULB student
who attended the event.
“[I feel] she is spreading anti-Russian
propaganda. She hasn’t proven anything,”
said Irina Kouznetsova, a teacher’s assistant
for German studies at Cal State Long Beach.
Politkovskaia said that the United Nations’
position on the situation in Chechnya is
that it is an internal problem for Russia.
The United Nations feels that it is up to
the Kremlin and the White House to work
together to resolve the issue, she said.
Politkovskaia described in great detail
the events she has witnessed in Chechnya
in her book, “A Dirty War,” which she was
promoting at her presentation.
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