Person of the Week: Elena Milashina

posted 24 Apr 2017, 07:22 by Rights in Russia   [ updated 24 Apr 2017, 07:22 ]
On 15 April 2017 in an interview with The Washington Post Novaya gazeta journalist Elena Milashina said she had left Moscow because of threats made against Novaya gazeta staff following her reports on the persecution of gay men in Chechnya. Adam Taylor, writing in The Washington Post, reported: "This backlash had been sparked by an April 1 story from reporter Elena Milashina and her colleague Irina Gordienko. In March, Milashina had discovered evidence that gay men were being detained, tortured and even killed in an anti-homosexual purge in Chechnya. After spending weeks checking the story with her sources, Milashina says they could confirm that hundreds of people had been detained; at least three are now thought to have died." 

The Committee to Protect Journalists, on 17 April 2017, issued the following a statement calling on the Russian authorities to "immediately and thoroughly investigate threats made against Elena Milashina." Nina Ognianova, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator, said: "We call on Russian authorities to act swiftly, decisively, and effectively to rein in all those responsible for threatening Elena Milashina and other Novaya Gazeta journalists for the newspaper's work. No journalist should be compelled to leave her home for doing her job because security forces are not doing theirs."

Elena Milashina is an investigative journalist for the Moscow-based Novaya gazeta newspaper. In October 2009 she was awarded Human Rights Watch's Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism; in she received the International Women of Courage Award.

Photo: Wikipedia [via State Department/Public Domain]

Sources:
Adam Taylor, 'She broke the story of Chechnya’s anti-gay purge. Now, she says she has to flee Russia,' The Washington Post, 15 April 2017
'Russian journalist flees Moscow following threats,' Committee for the Protection of Journalists, 17 April 2017
'Elena Milashina,' Wikipedia
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