Obituary: Natalia Estemirova

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8152648.stm

Since celebrity deaths come in threes...

Award-winning Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova, who has been found shot dead in the North Caucasus, documented hundreds of cases of abuse in Chechnya.

Her work for the Russian human rights group Memorial latterly focused on alleged human rights violations by government-backed militias.

Such was her importance as a regional expert that her office in the Chechen capital Grozny became the first stop for many visiting journalists, BBC Moscow correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes recalls.

Of mixed Russian-Chechen parentage, Ms Estemirova told the BBC in a 2007 interview that she felt she could understand both peoples.

Asked if she ever felt her life was in danger, she said her dedication to her work overrode her fears.

'Emblematic moral figure'

Born in the south Russian province of Saratov, she graduated in history from Grozny University and was teaching history in a school in the city until 1998, according to Memorial.

She began reporting on human rights abuses and when the second Chechen War started in 1999, she documented civilian casualties.

Joining Memorial in 2000, when she moved temporarily to neighbouring Ingushetia, she continued investigating civilian casualties in Chechnya, notably in the villages of Novye Atagy in March 2000 and Rigakha in April 2004.

In January 2005, a group of MEPs in the European Parliament awarded the Robert Schuman Medal to both her and Sergei Kovalyov, chairman of Memorial.

In their citation, the MEPs said: "A large part of the Chechen society sees Natalia as an emblematic moral figure in the non-violent Chechen resistance.

"Far from political passions, she is, above all, devoted to helping victims of violence."

In October 2007, Ms Estemirova was awarded the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya award from the Reach All Women in War campaign group.

That award had been established after the killing of Politkovskaya - a journalist who sought to uncover human rights abuses in Chechnya - outside her home in Moscow in 2006.

'I have to work'

Ms Estemirova was a close friend and colleague of the journalist, interpreting for her on her reporting trips to Chechnya.

Visiting London to collect the Politkovskaya prize, Ms Estemirova was interviewed about her life and work by BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

Asked if she ever felt her life was in danger, she said: "Sometimes I just can't even come to feeling that because I have such strong other feelings.

"I try to be very exact about how I go about things and of course I do have worries about my family and people close to me but I still have to do my work.

"Of course there are moments when I feel scared."

Russian prosecutors gave Ms Estemirova's age as 50. She leaves behind a daughter of school age.

[The Yosemite Bear]

reminds me of that journelist in Northern Ireland who started covering Police Curruption, and the expansion of Drugs and prostitution into paying for both sides of the Terrorists keeping the troubles alive.

Every so often someone talks about how journelists are nothing but scum, and I think back to how many have died to bring a story to our attention.

[Akkleptos]

Every so often someone talks about how journelists are nothing but scum, and I think back to how many have died to bring a story to our attention.

You can say that again.

Back in 2008, in Mexico (and it's not looking any better this year):

Freedom of expression moved forward on paper with the decriminalisation of press offences at federal level, but in practice, the country is still the most deadly in the Americas for journalists, with two killed and three vanished in 2007. Three media assistants were also killed and prospects are not good with some local authorities working with organised crime.

Reporters sans frontiéres, on Mexico (what are Reporters without borders?)



Requiescat in pacem, Natalia Estemirova.

Reporters without frontiers tribute.

“We salute the exemplary courage and commitment of this human rights activist and former journalist, we share the grief of her friends and family and we join them in honouring her memory,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We remind the Russian authorities of the violence and abuses to which the population of the Caucasus has been abandoned and we urge them to take action.”

The press freedom organisation added: “The authorities must publicly condemn this murder and demonstrate a real determination to combat impunity. A human rights activist’s abduction in the heart of Grozny and ensuing murder at a time when Chechnya is supposedly safe again shows that, despite the optimistic claims, the issue of the Caucasus has not been resolved.”

Employed by one of Russia’s best known human rights NGOs, Estemirova specialised in exposing human rights violations in Chechnya and as former journalist she had helped to cover the wars in this troubled republic. She had been awarded many prizes and was nominated for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2004.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I took journelism in College, back when we were still taught to obey the fairness doctrine despite Reagan abolishing it when I was in grade school. One of the lessons they kept hammering into us, is that the shot may be great, it may be immemerable news, It could be the next Hindenberg, Zebruder, or Kent State, but is it really worth getting a posthastumus pulitzer? Also if you die before the story gets out, it didn't happen.

[Akkleptos]

Also if you die before the story gets out, it didn't happen.

She, kind of, got the story out before she died.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Yes, but some of those journelists that dissipeared in Mexico and South America over the last 40 years didn't. Now there was also a case of a Refinery Fire in Texas, where the camera man became a BBQ trying to get a nice Hindiberg type shot.

[Akkleptos]

Yes, but some of those journelists that dissipeared in Mexico and South America over the last 40 years didn't. Now there was also a case of a Refinery Fire in Texas, where the camera man became a BBQ trying to get a nice Hindiberg type shot.

Well, yeah. I guess it's easy to get carried away trying to report what one thinks has real Pulitzer potential. Or is that some poeple just believe in the whole old "the people have a right to know"? Anyway...

Agreed, it's important to keep in mind that if you -the journalist- die, all your work might be just lost.

[MKSheppard]

Every so often someone talks about how journelists are nothing but scum, and I think back to how many have died to bring a story to our attention.

I recall my quote in Loinstar's sig:

"You have done more to ensure liberties for people today, Matt than all of the goddamn reporters in the world combined"
-Shep, [to me on AIM] after his visit to the Newseum.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Yes, but some of those journelists that dissipeared in Mexico and South America over the last 40 years didn't. Now there was also a case of a Refinery Fire in Texas, where the camera man became a BBQ trying to get a nice Hindiberg type shot.

Well, yeah. I guess it's easy to get carried away trying to report what one thinks has real Pulitzer potential. Or is that some poeple just believe in the whole old "the people have a right to know"? Anyway...

Agreed, it's important to keep in mind that if you -the journalist- die, all your work might be just lost.

yeah, the teacher had a real nice set of slides from various journalistic death shots

Storm Light on Halfdome
The CBS crew at Jonestown
The aforementioned oil refinery fire in Texas
Last Footage from a WWII corespondent
and a few others.

[Steve]

Every so often someone talks about how journelists are nothing but scum, and I think back to how many have died to bring a story to our attention.

I recall my quote in Loinstar's sig:

"You have done more to ensure liberties for people today, Matt than all of the goddamn reporters in the world combined"
-Shep, [to me on AIM] after his visit to the Newseum.

Maybe so, but that doesn't detract from those reporters who are killed trying to inform the world of criminal activity, atrocity, and other things that might lead to these things being fixed.

[Shroom Man 777]

Unless the strong and firm seamen on those long and hard warships who've joined the Navy to explore the seven seas can do shit about government corruption, law-enforcement corruption, and criminalism and bring them to the light for public scrutiny and outcry, the I'm sorry but those goddamn reports and journos combined still do their fair share in ensuring the liberties for people today. Not by blowing shit up and playing homoerotic beach volleyball, but by bringing information to people and by making them aware of exactly what's going on in the world around them.

[EDIT: And these journos who get their heads caved in by rocks and buried in ditches in shitpiece countries all over the world, unfortunately, don't get gun-salute funerals like the brave boys and boys of, say, the murrican military.]

I wonder if Sheppy-poo feels the same way about propagandists.

[Darth Wong]

Every so often someone talks about how journelists are nothing but scum, and I think back to how many have died to bring a story to our attention.

I recall my quote in Loinstar's sig:

"You have done more to ensure liberties for people today, Matt than all of the goddamn reporters in the world combined"
-Shep, [to me on AIM] after his visit to the Newseum.

That is not logical. Soldiers don't do anything unless they are compelled to by their governments, which are in turn guided by public sentiment, which is in turn heavily influenced by news reporting. Since the number of soldiers is probably much larger than the number of active reporters, it means that an individual soldier probably has considerably less influence on world events than an individual reporter.

[Akkleptos]

Storm Light on Halfdome
The CBS crew at Jonestown
The aforementioned oil refinery fire in Texas
Last Footage from a WWII corespondent
and a few others.

It's worth it if somebody retrieves the film/notes even after you die on the field, I guess.

You have done more to ensure liberties for people today, Matt than all of the goddamn reporters in the world combined"
-Shep, after his visit to the Newseum.

Soldiers don't do anything unless they are compelled to by their governments, which are in turn guided by public sentiment, which is in turn heavily influenced by news reporting. Since the number of soldiers is probably much larger than the number of active reporters, it means that an individual soldier probably has considerably less influence on world events than an individual reporter.

So true, at least in a democratic regime. Oh, the merciless weight of number logic!

[MKSheppard]

So, I'm waiting to hear how the brave deaths of 25 reporters (I think that's the current "death count") in Soviet Russia has changed anything wrt the evil Kleptocratic Medevev Putin Regime lawfully elected government.

[Darth Wong]

So, I'm waiting to hear how the brave deaths of 25 reporters (I think that's the current "death count") in Soviet Russia has changed anything wrt the evil Kleptocratic Medevev Putin Regime lawfully elected government.

Oh yeah, as if no soldier ever died without accomplishing any noticeable change.

[Akkleptos]

So, I'm waiting to hear how the brave deaths of 25 reporters (I think that's the current "death count") in Soviet Russia has changed anything wrt the evil Kleptocratic Medevev Putin Regime lawfully elected government.

If you think simple gunpoint diplomacy is going to effect anything better, please go ahead and support your claim. Are you suggesting an invasion of Russia, then, since soldiers are always more effective than reporters at correcting the world's evils? I'm sure Stas and fgalkin would be ready to enlighten you as to why that would be a bad idea.

Hell, why didn't they think of sending US marines to Tiananmen square, back then?


(facepalm)


EDIT: Epic facepalm!
EDIT 2 (and URL)

[Darth Wong]

If we're going by the logic of determining that a class of people is useless by identifying specific examples and generalizing, then let's throw it right back: how many soldiers died in WW1 without accomplishing a damned thing?

Shep doesn't honestly think his position is logically sound, does he? It's nothing more than militarist inspirational nonsense. Who takes such things seriously? The idea that any random member of the armed forces can be assumed to be more important than all of the world's reporters is pure wank-rhetoric.

[Shroom Man 777]

So, I'm waiting to hear how the brave deaths of 25 reporters (I think that's the current "death count") in Soviet Russia has changed anything wrt the evil Kleptocratic Medevev Putin Regime lawfully elected government.

Oh yeah, as if no soldier ever died without accomplishing any noticeable change.

Maybe if the casualties stacked up to 4,000+ then maybe Operation Non-American Freedom will have had some progress. Or not.

But I don't know Mr. DW, maybe societal change for the better can't happen without explosions and battle-briefed Spartafreedomericans impaling Persian Uruk-hai with their long and hard spears?

[Akkleptos]

But I don't know Mr. DW, maybe societal change for the better can't happen without explosions and battle-briefed Spartafreedomericans impaling Persian Uruk-hai with their long and hard spears?

Or without Spartafreedomericans (all loving sons, daughters or parents of other Spartafreedomericans) being blown to pieces by roadside anti-vehicle mines in countries they shouldn't have been in the first place... for reasons only Bush knows.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Hell even Leonidus Realized he need a war correspondant, why else did he send the one eye'd man back to sparta, and then to athens?

Hell one of WWII and Korea's most famous War Correspondants got himself finally killed by the Chinese. (Which is pretty impressive since those German 88s didn't manage to mangle his ass when I was shooting at Normandy)

[The Yosemite Bear]

Also WWII, no one would have believed that the camps were really that bad, if some reporter hadn't come along and filmed everything. The human skin lampshades, the ovens, the showers, the jewfat soap bars.

[Shroom Man 777]

But I don't know Mr. DW, maybe societal change for the better can't happen without explosions and battle-briefed Spartafreedomericans impaling Persian Uruk-hai with their long and hard spears?

Or without Spartafreedomericans (all loving sons, daughters or parents of other Spartafreedomericans) being blown to pieces by roadside anti-vehicle mines in countries they shouldn't have been in the first place... for reasons only Bush knows.

Come back with your shield, or on it!

It is ironic since really those soldiers would rather NOT get blown to shitpieces and now it's all the journo's fault for raising public awareness of the thousands of uselessly killed soldiers in Vietraq who died because Shrub lied, and because of the goddamn journos now people want the soldiers to come home back to their families and loved ones - something Shep probably finds anti-atomically atrociously abhorrent and downright despicable.

Hell even Leonidus Realized he need a war correspondant, why else did he send the one eye'd man back to sparta, and then to athens?

Ole One-Eye was obviously a propagandist like Joseph Goebbels, since his stories are basically full of shit. Shep hasn't clarified his opinion on propagandists yet.

Jewfat soap bars.

[Akkleptos]

Also WWII, no one would have believed that the camps were really that bad, if some reporter hadn't come along and filmed everything. The human skin lampshades, the ovens, the showers, the jewfat soap bars.

Well, revisionists would say that the death camps -especially Auschwitz- were doctored by the Soviets in order to paint Nazi Germany as... well, what we hold them to be today, all the way down to building the gas chambers that looked like showers and all.

This has to be the starting point. If you could go to Auschwitz and find a room that was obviously a gas chamber, then there would be no such thing as revisionism. That would settle the matter once and for all. The problem is, when you go to Auschwitz and look at the room that is supposed to have been a gas chamber, you find a room that is obviously not a gas chamber. That's why revisionism is possible. That's why revisionism is necessary.

Come back with your shield, or on it!

I guess that's the theme, thank you.

[The Yosemite Bear]

There's still one of the Auschwitz captured toiletries cases for the SS, that included a soap bar. "Made from 100% jew-fat" That's right they used the little remaining fat to make SOAP ala fight club, after they killed their prisoners....

[Akkleptos]

There's still one of the Auschwitz captured toiletries cases for the SS, that included a soap bar. "Made from 100% jew-fat" That's right they used the little remaining fat to make SOAP ala fight club, after they killed their prisoners....

Well, of course you understand than when I said "revisionists" I meant "lying Nazi-wannabe-motherfuckers". Meaning there will always be scumbags trying to justify what's unjustifiable.