(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to Minister of Justice Yuri Chaika, RSF strongly denounced the attack that cost Russian journalist Alexander Yefremov and two Russian officers their lives in the southeast of Chechnya. “This is a criminal act that threatens all the representatives of the press in the North Caucasus. We ask you to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to Minister of Justice Yuri Chaika, RSF strongly denounced the attack that cost Russian journalist Alexander Yefremov and two Russian officers their lives in the southeast of Chechnya. “This is a criminal act that threatens all the representatives of the press in the North Caucasus. We ask you to take all necessary measures to ensure the security of journalists,” declared Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF also asked the Russian authorities to be kept informed about the results of the inquiry, noting that the North Caucasus is currently one of the most dangerous zones in the world for representatives of the press. Yefremov is the fourteenth journalist killed since the first conflict that ravaged this Caucasian republic in 1994.
According to the information obtained by RSF, Yefremov and two Russian officers were killed in their vehicle, following the explosion of a remote-controlled mine, near the village of Kirov in the southeast of Chechnya on 12 May 2000. Yefremov was a journalist for the daily “Nache Vremia”, based in Tioumen (Siberia).
