Gadzhimurat Kamalov, was a Russian
investigative journalist and owner of Svoboda Slova (translated as "Freedom of Speech"), which is the media company that published the newspaper
Chernovik died from shot he was 46..
[1]
Kamalov was shot dead in an apparent assassination as his name had
been put on a hit list because of his reporting on Muslim rebel activity
in the
Republic of Dagestan and had been well known for his reporting on corruption.
[2] His death is said to have a chilling effect on others in media from speaking out.
[citation needed]
(Russian: Хаджимурад Магомедович Камалов, also spelled Gadjimurat,
Gadzhimurad, Khadzhimurat, or Khadzhimurad Kamalov;
11 February 1965 – 15 December 2011)
Personal life
Gadzhimurat Kamalov, an ethnic
Avar,
[3] was born in the village of Sogratl, which is in the
Gunibsky District of Dagestan,
Russia.
[4]
He was married and had one child. His uncle, Ali Kamalov, was the chair
of the Union of Journalists in Dagestan at the time his nephew was
killed.
[5]
He was educated in engineering at the
Dagestan Polytechnic Institute in 1982 and later at the
Leningrad Technical University in 1990.
[4]
Kamalov began his journalism career by working at the
New Business (Russian: Новое Дело).
[4] After founding a major newspaper in Dagestan, he served as press secretary for President
Mukhu Aliyev,
[3] whose term lasted from 2006 to 2010. Kamalov was also a member of the president's Council of Economic Advisers under President
Magomedsalam Magomedov.
[6]
Hundreds attended Kamalov's funeral.
[7]
Work
On 19 August 2003,
[8] Kamalov founded the newspaper Chernovik (
Russian:
Черновик, which translates as "Rough Draft"),
[7] which was well known for investigating government corruption in Dagestan.
[1]
The most controversial article published in Chernovik was "Terrorist No. 1", which included quotes from
Rappani Khalilov, in July 2008, and that led to a legal case between the government and Chernovik that lasted until May 2011.
[9][10]
Khalilov was killed on 18 September 2007 before the article was
published. He had been sought after as a high-profile terrorist target
because of his involvement in the 1999 raid from
Chechnya into Dagestan and a 2002 bombing that killed 40 people.
[11][12] The editor of Chernovik was called to the prosecutor's office and warned before charges were filed.
[10]
According to
Nadira Isayeva,
who was the editor-in-chief of Chernovik at the time it published the
Khalilov article and during its legal struggles, said, "Khadzhimurad had
many enemies. He wasn't afraid to spell out his motto: 'A newspaper
does not need friends.' He was not without an element of the cavalier.
He could go off for some meeting with some frostbitten bandits and come
back unharmed. He loved investigating corruption. Many of those exposed
by his revelations – senior civil servants, police officers and staff at
the prosecutor's office – had criminal pasts, and presents. Some were
dangerous and not afraid of killing. Often there were confrontations
with the heads of Dagestan's municipalities, many of whom are bandits."
[13]
Biyakai Magomedov, who is the current editor of Chernovik, said, "The
corrupt structures have been afraid of us. [...] They couldn’t defeat
us in courts, because we won practically all the cases."
[8] The main case against Chernovik had ended in acquittal on 19 May 2011.
[4]
At one point, when Chernovik lost its financial backers, Kamalov took
out loans using his flat as collateral, despite the fact that his wife
and child lived there. He also would sell off office equipment, until he
finally found new backers.
[13]
As the owner, Kamalov did not interfere with the editorial content of
the newspaper and he encouraged his journalists to report the truth,
according to accounts by Mairbek Agayev, who is a political columnist
for Chernovik, and Mahir Pashayev, who is a business and economics
reporter. "It is the only newspaper without any censorship," said
Pashayev.
[14]
Media source
Besides being behind the news, Gadzhimurat Kamalov was often called
on to be a source for media outlets who were looking for an expert to
analyze the deteriorating situation in Dagestan.
Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, 8 July 2005
- [Kamalov]: "Neither the opposition, nor the Republic of Dagestan's
official regional authorities, will be able to sort this situation out
[... ] I can tell you that the people are increasingly going to the
mosques already with the fully conscious understanding that the laws of
the Russian Federation
cannot operate in the Republic of Dagestan, but that the alternative
traditional laws work. To be more exact, those with a basis in Shar'iah
law work. And so the number of people with such an understanding of
legislation and law-enforcement is increasing. And neither the
opposition, nor the regional authorities, faced with this fully formed
third force are able to handle this."[15]
Kamalov questions security operation
On 28 June 2008, Kamalov told Ekho Moskvy, Moscow, that the security
forces had killed three people who were not militants but one was a
university educator whom Kamalov knew. Kamalov said, "... a knock on the
door [...] is considered a dangerous thing here. Here everybody is
afraid of the police. He once told me that if at any time they would
come to his place, he would refuse to open the door. It was precisely
because he was afraid of an unauthorized search of his flat that [he]
must have refused to open the door to them. Thus, they had a
justification to storm the flat." The same account was published in
print.
[16]
Activism
On 26 September 2005, Gadzhimurat Kamalov organized an unprecedented protest in
Makhachkala
against the action of the Federal Agency for the Press and Mass
Communication to stop the printing and distribution of issues of the
Chernovik. Fifty journalists and supporters participated in the protest.
[17]
On 25 November 2011, Kamalov led a protest of somewhere between 3,000
and 5,700 participants who are against the unlawful use of force and
the disappearance of civilians allegedly by security forces, an issue on
which Chernovik has focused.
[3][18]
Death
| Assassination of Gadzhimurat Kamalov |
|
|
| Location |
Makhachkala, Republic Dagestan, Russia |
| Date |
15 December 2011 |
| Deaths |
1 |
Kamalov was shot eight times as he was exiting Chernovik's
headquarters on Magomed Hajiyev Street in Makhachkala, Dagestan, a
Russian province in the north
Caucasus region, around 11:45 p.m., 15 December 2011.
[1][19] The gunman was masked, shot 14 rounds in total, and sped away from the scene of the crime in a black
Lada Priora.
[20]
Kamalov had previously received death threats in September 2009 when he
was one of eight journalists included in a hit list distributed
anonymously in Makhachkala.
[7] The list claimed to be seeking revenge for the deaths of police and civilians during Dagestan's unrest.
[7] Kamalov may have been included for his sympathetic portrayals of rebel fighters.
[13]
Reactions
Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of
Human Rights Watch
in Moscow, said: "Kamalov's death is terrible and it will have a
monstrous effect on the free press in Dagestan. He had many enemies
because of Chernovik's searching reports on corrupt businesses and the
transgressions of the local
siloviki
[law enforcement bodies]." Lokshina blamed the murder on the Russian
authorities' governing of the region: "Even if there was a personal
aspect to his murder then it became possible because of the atmosphere
of complete impunity which the Russian authorities have allowed to
flourish there."
[7]
The New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists
said that the "murder of Gadzhimurat Kamalov [...] is a lethal blow to
press freedom", adding that his murder was "a massive loss for
independent journalism in the
North Caucasus, Russia's most dangerous place for reporters".
[1] The CPJ had already awarded its
press freedom award in 2010 to the Chernovik's former editor Nadira Isayeva,
[8][21] and the newspaper's reputation for modern
muckraker journalism was well-known outside of the North Caucasus.
[22]
The
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and
UNESCO both called for a credible investigation into the Kamalov assassination.
Irina Bokova,
who is the director-general of UNESCO, said, "Fear must not be allowed
to muzzle media professionals, deny reporters the basic human right of
freedom of expression and bar citizens from accessing information."
[23]
Magomedsalam Magomedov, president of Dagestan, said: "He always came
out for unity and peace, and carrying out dialogue [...] This is a big
loss not just for journalists, but for the whole republic."
[6][18] The president's office officially took control over the murder investigation.
[19]
Saygidpasha Umakhanov, a prominent mayor in Dagestan, said,
"[Gadzhimurat] was indeed an independent and honest journalist. It's
impossible to find another like him.... His numerous friends and the
healthy forces in society will do everything to find the killer. [But
for that] we really need to be united."
[3]
Impact
Yulia Latynina, an expert on the Caucasus region, said, "Just as [Anna]
Politkovskaya's
death meant the loss of information about Chechnya, Kamalov's death
will mean that to a large extent we will stop to understand what's going
on in Dagestan. People will simply be scared to write anything."
[24]
Context
According to the BBC, assassination in Dagestan has become routine as
the levels of violence in the autonomous Republic of Dagestan have
risen.
[25]
The republic is seated between the Caspian Sea and Chechnya. Whereas in
Chechnya, rebels have been advocating independence from Russia, in
Dagestan the conflict with the rebels is described as more diffuse.
[26]
Dagestan is a muli-ethnic country with Avars being the largest among
them. The majority of citizens practice Sufi Islam but younger people
are attracted to the
Salafist brand of Islam.
[26][27] The Mafia is active throughout the country and use violence, kidnapping and murder to intimidate victims.
[26] The security forces in the country are visible and also use violence to achieve its goals.
[26]
The problems of Chechnya have spilled over into Dagestan since war
broke out there in the early 1990s and the struggle with Dagestan's
Muslim rebels has been going on since that time. In the last years, the
situation has become more intense.
[28]
The problems feeding the violence in Dagestan are therefore a diffuse
blend of ethnic, religious, generational, criminal, and authoritarian
causes.
Dagestan's press is described by both BBC News
[25] and
Reporters Without Borders[9] as "pluralistic," but the availability of many sources has not lowered tensions. Dunja Mijatovic, who is the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Representative on Freedom of the Media, said, "Daghestan and the
Northern Caucasus are known to be among the most dangerous places in the
world for journalists."
[29]
Press freedom organizations, such as the Committee to Protect
Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, have called for the immediate
investigation of Kamalov's murder. Russia, however, is on the CPJ's
list of top 10 countries with the worst records of impunity in the
killing of journalists.
[1][29]
From 2000 until the time of Kamalov's death, Russia has accrued 18
unsolved cases of murders of journalists, according to the CPJ.
[28] CPJ lists three journalists from Dagestan before Kamalov who have been killed since 2000in Makhachkala:
[30]
- Malik Akhmedilov, who was daily editor of the Hakikat (Translated: The Truth), was killed on 11 August 2009.
- Abdulla Alishayev, who was a TV host on TV-Chirkei, was killed on 2 September 2008.
- Magomedzagid Varisov, who was the editor of Novoye Delo, was killed on 28 June 2005.
Other journlists who were killed but were unconfirmed by CPJ:
- Gadzhi Abashilov, who was the head of Dagestan's state broadcasting company, was killed in Makhachkala on 21 March 2008.[31]
Additionally, Reporters Without Borders lists:
[32]
- Yakhya Magomedov, who was a journalist working for Assalam (Russian: Ассалам), was killed in Kokrek, Dagestan on 8 May 2011.
The newspapers in Dagestan with the highest circulations have all
experienced the murder of one of their journalists. The top selling news
products in Dagestan, include
Assalam, which has the highest circulation and is a moderate Muslim bi-weekly;
Novoye Delo and
Chernovik.
[9] Unlike the competition, Chernovik is an independent newspaper.
[14]
The newspaper targets the civically engaged audience demographic
between the ages of 28 to 45, which makes up 80 percent of its
readership.
[33]
The popularity of the media has a negative side. The media are caught
in the middle as they are a visible target in which all the forces
facing Dagestan can attack to get at their enemies (p. 9).
[9]
To see more of who died in 2011
click here
Carmen Rupe, born Trevor Rupe was a New Zealand-Australian drag performer, brothel keeper, anti-discrimination activist, would-be politician, and HIV/AIDS activist died she was 75..[1] She was a transgender woman.[2]
