In recent years, some of the leading investigative journalists in Europe have fallen victim to brutal killings: Hrant Dink in Turkey, Georgyi Gongadze in Ukraine and Elmar Huseynov in Azerbaijan. On 7 October 2011 it will be five years since Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Russia. No effort must be spared to apprehend and bring to justice not only the actual killers, but also those who ordered these murders, says Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in his latest Human Rights Comment  published today.

Discussion on protection of journalists from violence

See video of the discussion

"It is crucial to clarify not only who pulled the trigger against journalists murdered for doing their work, but also who was behind them", said Thomas Hammarberg, in a discussion held in Strasbourg on 5 October on protection of journalists from violence. "Many journalists are today under threat and pressure, and there is an urgent need to ensure that they can their work in safety", he claimed. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, and Sergey Sokolov, Deputy Editor of Novaya Gazeta, also participated in the discussion. Dunja Mijatović called for a greater political will by governments to put pressure on their peers which do not do enough to investigate these crimes. She called for the decriminalisation of libel, a step that both she and the Human Rights Commissioner have strongly demanded from governments.