RIP Fair Journalism in Russia
While I can't say I'm hugely surprised about Anna Politkovskaya's death - any time I so much as looked at one of her books I said to myself, 'gosh, I can't believe someone hasn't killed her' - I'm still shocked and upset by it. It bothers me that people are still killed, with impunity, for telling the truth. She's not the only one, but I've read her books and what she was reporting on was important and terrible. It's all too easy to forget that the war in Chechnya still goes on, because it's so tied into things that we want to ignore like oil and nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism and warlords. It's like a conflict from another age, but it's not, and I worry that now she's dead the people there will have no-one who is willing to put their life on the line to speak up for them.

Coverage in:
BBC News Online
Moscow Times
Guardian
New York Times

Will they get away with it? Probably.