List of Journalists Killed in Russia - Deaths and Trials, Statistics

Deaths and Trials, Statistics

The violent deaths of journalists started in the Yeltsin era (1991–1999) and continued under Putin, president of Russia from 31 December 1999 to 7 May 2008. When Medvedev became president, he spoke of the need to end "legal nihilism". In the past five years, there have been a rising number of trials but by November 2009 there had yet to be a major breakthrough, under Medvedev, either in the prosecution of pre-2008 deaths or the investigation of killings since his May 2008 inauguration. The Politkovskaya murder trial and the first arrests in the Baburova-Markelov slaying (November 2009) showed some inconclusive signs of movement.

See also: List of Presidents of the Russian Federation and Presidents

President	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P-M	M
year	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	TOTAL
murder,crossfire terrorist act	10	12	22	18	10	10	11	17	12	23	11	12	5	13	3	5	6	200
murder only	3	8	16	12	10	10	8	15	11	20	11	10	4	13	3	5	6	165
trials	-	-	-	1	1	4	4	3	1	3	3	6	2	7	5	4	2	50

The yearly figures in the table above are derived from the "journalists in Russia" database, where details can be found on each individual death. Certain important categories are not included. Those who have gone "missing" (14 persons); those who died in an incident ("not confirmed", 28 persons), the nature of which has not been satisfactorily established; and journalists killed in work-related accidents (37 persons), may be found online in the IFJ database.

The third set of figures indicates the yearly number of verdicts reached in trials for the killing of journalists. With only three exceptions these have all been for homicide. Some cases have taken six to seven years to reach court, e.g. the killings of Dmitry Kholodov and Igor Domnikov, but most deaths that have resulted in prosecution take, on average, 12–24 months between the killing and the verdict.

Rates of conviction are a different matter. When the death was not related to the journalist's work the conviction rate exceeds 90%. When the journalist's death was certainly or seems likely to have been related to his or her work, the rate of acquittals rises sharply to around half of the total. Most trials are still held before a judge, aided by two lay assessors. Trial by judge and jury, still very rare in Russia, generally offers a more rigorous testing of evidence, robust defence of the suspects and a higher chance of the defendant being found not guilty (average acquittal rate of 20%). The Politkovskaya murder trial, which was held before a jury, ended in February 2009 with the acquittal of all those accused.