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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2006
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For more information:
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Anna Politkovskaya's Courage in Journalism Award Acceptance Speech
October 16, 2002
New York, New York
First of all, thank you. I understand that I am the first Russian journalist to receive this award. This is a great honor for me, especially so because it is for my coverage of the second war in Chechnya. I get more thorns than roses at home, and I am now a defendant in two criminal cases brought against me.
Now, a few words about what Russia is like today, in the times of President Putin. Let us see where we stand now, over ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is customary to believe that journalists go to places where wars and catastrophes break out because people and the world want to know the truth and the news about these events. In Russia things are just the opposite today. The people do not want to know the truth about the ongoing war. They have been subjected to a powerful ideological brainwash and were led to believe that the events in Chechnya are nothing but an anti-terrorist operation, and they do not want to know what really takes place there. They do not wish to hear about the crimes committed by the military, about the sufferings of the civilian population or about the thousands of victims on all the sides. So, the courage of a journalist under such circumstances consists in giving this information to the people, much against their will, and make them think about the tragedy that the country is going through, think that this must be stopped.
You may ask, why? Why, if people do not want that?
The answer is simple: this is our duty, the duty of a journalist. A doctor performs an operation. A journalist operates on the public opinion. The need to risk is part of the profession here. If you are tired and cannot take the risk any more, you have to leave. As for me, I am not tired yet.
I only wish my family were here with me now, for they would see that I sometimes have moments in my life when people thank me for my work instead of subjecting me to verbal abuse, persecutions, arrests and beatings – these things have happened. Thank you for being so kind to me.
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