Take action to end impunity: Olga Kotovskaya

16 Nov 11 | News and features

MURDERED 16 NOVEMBER 2009
Olga Kotovskaya, Co-Founder, Kaskad — Kaliningrad, Russia

Join us in demanding justice for Olga Kotovskaya. Authorities called it a suicide but her friends and colleagues of  believe she was murdered in connection to her work: on 16 November 2009, Kotovskaya fell to her death from a 14th-floor window of a building that she reportedly had no reason to be in. For years, Kotovskaya had been embroiled in a lawsuit with Kaliningrad’s former vice governor, Vladimir Pirogov, over control of Kaskad. A week before her death, a local court upheld her claims that Pirogov had taken charge of the station using documentation containing forged signatures.

Take Action: Write a letter demanding justice for Olga Kotovskaya

International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date,  we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.

Russia: calls to investigate reporter’s death

01 Dec 09 | Index Index, minipost, News and features

Friends and colleagues have called for an investigation into the death of a Russian TV journalist, Olga Kotovskaya who plunged from the 14th storey of a building one day after winning a major legal case. She was a prominent journalist on Kaskad regional TV channel which broadcasts in the western enclave of Kaliningrad. The channel had a reputation for objective news reporting, live broadcasts, and studio guests who were sometimes critical of regional leaders. The death was originally considered to be suicide however Solomon Ginzburg a deputy in Kaliningrad’s regional parliament told the Guardian: “I have no doubt at all that this was a political killing.” Read more here