WUNRN
Letter
to Anna: Movie
The Story of
Slain Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's Death
Anna
Politkovskaya
Анна
Степановна
Политковская
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Letter
to Anna: Movie - Summary
Anna
Politkovskaya was a Russian reporter who regularly wrote for Novaya Gazyeta,
one of the country's few independent journals. In a nation where political
corruption is widespread and exposing the misdeeds of the nation's leaders
often has dangerous consequences, Politkovskaya was a fearless voice whose
stories demanded responsibility from Vladimir Putin and his colleagues while
decrying Russia's actions in Chechnya, which she labeled as genocide. While
Politkovskaya writings earned her respect and made her one of the nation's best
known journalists, they also angered many powerful people; she nearly died
after she was poisoned in 2004 while covering the Beslan school hostage case,
and in October 2006 she was shot and killed by an unknown gunman while riding
an elevator in her apartment building; many of her friends and family believe
she was assassinated by government agents. Filmmaker Eric Bergkraut struck up a
friendship with Politkovskaya while making his documentary Coca: The Dove From
Chechnya, and Ein Artikel zu viel: Der Mord an Anna Politkowskaja (aka Letter
To Anna: The Story Of Journalist Politkovskaya's Death features archival
interviews with the late reporter, as well as contributions from colleagues and
loved ones who discuss her work and offer their views on her suspicious
passing. Letter To Anna received its North American premiere at the 2008
Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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WUNRN
TRIBUTE TO SLAIN RUSSIAN WOMAN
JOURNALIST
ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA
Politkovskaya:
A Life for Justice
By Swanee
Hunt
October 10, 2006
Everyone needs a hero. Anna Politkovskaya was mine. And others’. In addition to the 2005 Civil Courage Prize, she received the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2002, as well as prizes from the Overseas Press Club and Amnesty International. In 2004, she was a joint winner of the Olof Palme Prize for her human rights work.
I met Anna in November, 2000, at Women Waging Peace, a network of about 450 leaders within the Initiative for Inclusive Security, which advocates for the full inclusion of women in peace processes around the world. That initiative was incubated at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. We try to protect and support women peace experts in part by bringing them to the attention of policy makers at the State Department, World Bank, White House, and other halls of power.
This past Saturday Anna was executed: shot point blank in the head with a revolver outside her apartment. The gun was placed by her side, indicating a contract-killing. She was 48.
Born in 1958, Anna graduated from
She told me once that because she was female, she was considered less
threatening and could get behind the lines, where she reported on abuses the
army was perpetrating against Muslim communities under cover of fighting
terrorism. She described how, to avoid a military checkpoint, she’d made her
way down to a river, then trekked through deep snow all night. Another
time, she posed as a farm wife sitting on a pile of hay in a wagon; she smiled
that without her wire-rims she couldn’t see a thing. Another time she was
apprehended by Russian forces but freed as night fell by a sympathetic major.
In February 2000, the FSB (former KGB) confined her in a pit in
Despite those dangers, like many of the women we have sponsored, Anna Politkovskaya kept working to expose the injustices around her. Fearless, but not naïve, she knew her life was on the line as she described the moral decay of 100,000 security forces, whose abuses only spawn more terrorism. Still, she continued to document zachistka ("mop-up"), where young men, or any others considered suspicious, are rounded up from their homes, sometimes tortured, and often executed.
Because of her standing with the Chechens, Politkovskaya acted as a mediator
during the Dubrovka Theater siege in
I last saw Anna in December. She and a small group were discussing the role of women in the security sector, as protectors of human rights, journalists, politicians, and leaders of civil society. They called for women’s solidarity internationally to ensure peace and stability. Anna spoke about freedom of speech and how crucial it is for NGOs to challenge the government. Her words then bear the weight of her sacrifice now.
That day I took two pictures of Anna: the first, somber; the second, her head back, laughing. I think of those two images of her as we mourn her murder and celebrate her life. She understood that with freedom comes responsibility to work for those denied such freedom. As we grieve her death, forty years too soon, we must redouble our efforts and carry forward her legacy.
Swanee Hunt, former