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Anna Politkovskaya
was a Russian correspondent of the newspaper Nowaja Gazeta. Despite of great resistance and the danger of her life she didn't give up the reporting on the Chechen conflict.
Russian correspondent Anna Politkovskaya had covered the Chechen war for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta since 1998. In her articles and books she described the numerous instances of cleansing, rape, execution and torture in this battered region, putting herself in great danger while doing her job. A mother of two children she repeatedly received threats on her life in Russia and had to be placed under police protection. In the Moscow musical theatre hostage crisis in 2002 she acted as mediator.
In September 2004, when she prepared to cover the hostage taking in Beslan, Anna Politkovskaya was poisoned in an attempt to stop her from publishing reports contrary to the official version. However, two weeks later she was back on the job. She believed that "risk is part of the job. Either you do your work, knowing what you’re in for, or you leave it altogether."
Anna Politkovskaya was shot in Moscow on October 7th, 2006.
Awards:
- 2007: Guillermo-Cano-Prize (UNESCO-Prize for freedom of press; posthumously)
- 2007: Geschwister-Scholl-Prize (posthumously)
- 2007: Honorary membership of the Erich Maria Remarque-Society, Osnabrück (posthumously)