Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [4]
A statement issued by FSB representative Ilya Shabalkin claims that Novaya gazeta and its special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya are trying to exploit her assignments in Chechnya to “resolve their financial problems and disagreements with certain foundations.” Shabalkin has declared that Politkovskaya’s assignments are characterised by undesirable sensationalism and are hindering the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya. He also baldly asserts that these sensations are part of an attempt to persuade the Soros Foundation to write off a grant of $14,000 which Novaya gazeta received for work in political hotspots.
Shabalkin claims that our newspaper has failed to provide the Foundation’s Open Society Institute with an interim report, and that the Foundation has informed us in writing that it proposes to cease its financial support. Chekist Shabalkin additionally makes a particular point of claiming that Anna Politkovskaya lacked accreditation to work as a journalist in Chechnya.
All the pointers to a monstrous conspiracy are there: the link to American money, spreading disaffection among Russian troops on the orders of transatlantic fat cats, and absence of official permission to be operating in Chechnya at all.
The discovery of this plot against the Russian Federation was announced on all the main TV channels, distributed over the Interfax newswire, and gleefully published on the websites of the Effective Politics Foundation. It’s a chore, but we have to respond. Novaya gazeta, like hundreds of other organizations, was awarded a grant, of $55,000, by the Soros Foundation for the purposes of establishing a database of individuals who have disappeared without trace in Chechnya; to facilitate the release of prisoners and hostages; and to provide support to an orphanage and old people’s home. It is worth remarking that, although the grant was awarded last year, we have been doing all this work since 1994.
Our colleague Vyacheslav Izmailov succeeded in freeing more than 170 kidnap victims. Through the efforts of Novaya gazeta, and particularly those of our columnist Anna Politkovskaya, dozens of old people survived two winters in an old people’s home in Grozny. With the aid of the Interior Ministry we moved the old people, who had completely lost hope, back to their relatives. The Soros Foundation appreciated these efforts and offered financial support, which we were glad to accept.
Of the $55,000 awarded, we have so far received only a first payment of less than $14,000. The reason is quite simply that for three months we had to hide Anna Politkovskaya outside the borders of Russia. When it was confirmed that an assassination attempt was being prepared against her, the law “On Protection by the State” was invoked until the suspect was arrested. She was granted a special status which we are not at liberty to write about.
For these reasons our report was submitted in February this year. The Soros Foundation has no complaint against Novaya gazeta, and in the coming 12 months we will be receiving the remaining $41,000, and will continue our work.
In the allegations of hype surrounding Politkovskaya’s assignments, Chekist Shabalkin has excelled himself. It was not we, or Politkovskaya, but the Press Office of the Joint Military Command which on February 9–10 issued a statement claiming that Politkovskaya had left the Commandant’s Office in Shatoy without informing the military. Politkovskaya had good reason to leave. The facts communicated to her by the Military Prosecutors were too serious not to.
We repeat that we issued no statements, generated no hype. That was entirely the work of the FSB using the Army as its mouthpiece. So who set the ball rolling?
The answer as to why the FSB got so exercised is to be found in Novaya gazeta, Nos. 11 and 12. Using evidence from the criminal case and interviews with Military Prosecutors, Politkovskaya proved with facts and documents to hand that the shooting of six civilians, including a pregnant woman, and