In Case Pen Is No Mightier, Russian Journos Want Guns

The murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova last week are only the latest to strike the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, and show just how costly freedom of the press still is in Russia, Der Spiegel reports. Investigative reporters are likely to make so many enemies—from members of the military to corrupt politicians, businessmen, or gangsters—that Gazeta wants to provide its reporters with guns.

It seems little else can provide protection: In 2000, thugs confessed that the deputy governor of the central province of Lipetsk hired them to kill Gazeta editor Igor Domnikov. But the governor was called to Domnikov’s murder trial only as a witness, not a suspect—and remains free today, a successful businessman. (More Russia stories.)