Five journalists have been killed in Russia since the beginning of the year, bringing Russia back to the list of the world’s most dangerous countries for media. The level of impunity that surrounds journalist murders in the country is almost total, as investigators and prosecutors fail in most cases to bring the perpetrators and those who ordered the murders to justice.

Shafig Amrakhov, editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51, was shot in Murmansk and died on 5 January; Anastasiya Baburova, a freelance correspondent for the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was shot dead on 19 January; Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost died of head injuries on 29 June; Natalya Estemirova, a contributor to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel and the human rights group Memorial, was murdered on 15 July; Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, deputy editor of the daily Hakikat and of the political monthly Sogratl, in Dagestan, was shot dead on 11 August.

These murders brutally confirm the high risks facing journalists investigating corruption, crimes and human rights violations, notably in the North Caucasus.

WAN-IFRA is appalled by this pattern of extreme violence and it urges President Medvedev to personally commit to impartial and thorough investigations into Ms Estemirova’s and all other unresolved murders of Russian journalists in order for those responsible to be brought to justice. It calls on President Medvedev to resolutely put an end to the climate of impunity enjoyed by those who murder journalists in Russia.