Despite all of the dangers, Magomed Evloyev refused to shut down his website on the grounds that it was the only uncensored source of public information in his homeland, Ingushetia.
Zurab Markhiev believes that in the Caucasus a journalist must also be a human rights defender since censorship makes crime easy. This belief exiled him to Europe, where he is forced to hide.
Independent journalists in the North Caucasus often find that reporting is a life-threatening pursuit. Many have been forced to flee Russia and seek asylum elsewhere, while others have been murdered for their work.
Censorship and criminalization in the North Caucasus forced Valery Dzutsev, a former coordinator for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) to either “quit journalism or never return home.” He chose political asylum in the U.S. and cut ties with Russia.
Journalist Elena Maglevannaya dared to expose the torture of Chechen detainees in Russian prisons. As a result, she was sued for libel, attacked by neo-Nazis and threatened with institutionalization.
A profile of Natalia Estemirova, a Chechen journalist who paid with her life to expose human rights abuses in her homeland.
Brutal wars in Chechnya and now trouble in places such as Ossetia and Ingushetia have shown the world that ethnic conflict and Islamic separatism are seen as serious threats to Russia, even as it tries to regain some of the power it wielded during the Cold War.
But not all of Russia's Muslim republics are so restive. Welcome to sunny Tatarstan.
Produced by Jason Maloney & Zygmunt Dzieciolowski
Field Producer: Oleg Pavlov
Associate Producer: Aidar Galyautdinov
As the recent war between Russia and Georgia shows, the aftershocks of the collapse of the Soviet Union are still being felt today. 15 years ago, trouble started when two parts of Georgia, itself newly independent, tried to break away. War followed and entire communities were uprooted. Today over 200,000 refugees live in political limbo, unable to forget the place they once called home.
Aired the week of October 24 on Foreign Exchange.
Produced by Kira Kay, Jason Maloney and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Thomas Goltz, special to the Pulitzer Center
Well, it seems to be over, surprise, surprise, unless it turns into WW III, which I hope it does not.
The Caucasus War of 8.8.8 that is, the two-week (or two day) hurly burly in the mountainous southwest corner of the defunct Soviet Union that was a national debacle for West-obsessed Georgia and a crushing victory for a resurgent Russia.
They've been dreaming about independence for years. In 1999 Abkhazia's citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a national referendum. When I met top Abkhaz politicians only few weeks ago, "independence" and "sovereign state" were terms they used frequently and longingly. For them, a return to Georgia was simply unacceptable. They called Russia their "window to the world". However, they also remembered periods during the Yeltsin years when their neighbour to the North did not always seem to be a reliable ally.
Pulitzer Center Staff
Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer spoke to the World Affairs Council of Houston Tuesday night (8/26), addressing the Caucasus conflict -- its roots, the media coverage of the Georgia/Russia war, and likely repercussions. He drew on his own reporting from Georgia and South Ossetia two years ago and on the current Pulitzer-funded reporting by Jason Maloney, Kira Kay and Zygmunt Dziesciolowski.
They've dreamed about it for years. In 1999, in a national referendum, Abkhazia's citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. When I met top Abkhaz politicians only few weeks ago, "independence" and "sovereign state" were terms they used frequently and longingly. For them, return to Georgia was simply unacceptable. They called Russia their "window to the world". However, they also remembered periods during the Yeltsin years when their neighbor to the North did not always seem to be a reliable ally.
Donate Now
