The International Federation of Journalists has appealed that all the affiliated unions and associations (counting 600,000 press workers) send messages of solidarity to the participants of the meeting of commemoration of the Novaya Gazeta observer Anna Politkovskaya, that was to be held in Moscow on 7 October.   

Jim Boumelha, the president of IFJ and Aidan White, the General Secretary, called that all the journalists in the world join the requirement that the Russian authorities struggle in a more active way with the impunity of murders. Mr. Boumelha said that all the journalists of the world will remember Anna today. She has become a symbol for the colleagues all over the world. Too many killings are left without proper investigation and without punishment, noted Mr. Boumelha. It’s rare that the hired killers get on the bench and get sentenced, while those who organize the murders, they stay out of the justice’s requital.     

It’s too early to judge about effectiveness of investigation of Politkovskaya’s murder, and IFJ demands that the Russian authorities give all the necessary support to the investigators, said Mr. Boumelha.  

The President of IFJ also said that we cannot forget the Russian colleagues slain, whose murderers stay unpunished. There is no freedom of press while journalists have to work under such dangerous conditions.