Gadzhimurat Kamalov

Gadzhimurat Magomedovich Kamalov, (Хаджимурад Магомедович Камалов; 11 February 1965 – 15 December 2011) was a Russian investigative journalist and the owner of Svoboda Slova (translated as "Freedom of Speech"), the media company that published the newspaper Chernovik.

Kamalov was shot dead in an apparent assassination as his name had been put on a hit list for his reporting on Muslim rebel activity in the Republic of Dagestan, and he had been well known for his reporting on corruption.

His death had a chilling effect on other journalists.

Gadzhimurat Kamalov, an ethnic Avar, was born in the village of Sogratl, in the Gunibsky District of Dagestan, Russia.

He was married and had one child.

His uncle, Ali Kamalov, was the chair of the Union of Journalists in Dagestan at the time his nephew was killed.

He was educated in engineering at the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute in 1982 and later at the Leningrad Technical University in 1990.

Kamalov began his journalism career by working at the New Business (Russian: Новое Дело).

He had been sought after as a high-profile terrorist target because of his involvement in the 1999 raid from Chechnya into Dagestan and a 2002 bombing that killed 40 people.

The editor of Chernovik was called to the prosecutor's office and warned before charges were filed.

According to Nadira Isayeva, the editor-in-chief of Chernovik at the time it published the Khalilov article and during its legal struggles, "Khadzhimurad had many enemies. He wasn't afraid to spell out his motto: 'A newspaper does not need friends.' He was not without an element of the cavalier. He could go off for some meeting with some frostbitten bandits and come back unharmed. He loved investigating corruption. Many of those exposed by his revelations – senior civil servants, police officers and staff at the prosecutor's office – had criminal pasts, and presents. Some were dangerous and not afraid of killing. Often there were confrontations with the heads of Dagestan's municipalities, many of whom are bandits."

Biyakai Magomedov, the current editor of Chernovik, said, "The corrupt structures have been afraid of us. [...] They couldn’t defeat us in courts, because we won practically all the cases."

On 19 August 2003, Kamalov founded the newspaper Chernovik (Черновик, which translates as "Rough Draft"), which was well known for investigating government corruption in Dagestan.

On 26 September 2005, Gadzhimurat Kamalov organized an unprecedented protest in Makhachkala against the action of the Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communication to stop the printing and distribution of issues of the Chernovik.

Fifty journalists and supporters participated in the protest.

After founding a major newspaper in Dagestan, he served as press secretary for President Mukhu Aliyev, whose term lasted from 2006 to 2010.

Kamalov was also a member of the president's Council of Economic Advisers under President Magomedsalam Magomedov.

Khalilov was killed on 18 September 2007 before the article was published.

The most controversial article published in Chernovik was "Terrorist No. 1", which included quotes from Rappani Khalilov, in July 2008, and that led to a legal case between the government and Chernovik that lasted until May 2011.

On 28 June 2008, Kamalov told Ekho Moskvy, Moscow, that the security forces had killed three people who were not militants but one was a university educator whom Kamalov knew.

Kamalov said, "A knock on the door [...] is considered a dangerous thing here. Here everybody is afraid of the police. He once told me that if at any time they would come to his place, he would refuse to open the door. It was precisely because he was afraid of an unauthorized search of his flat that [he] must have refused to open the door to them. Thus, they had a justification to storm the flat."

The same account was published in print.

Kamalov had previously received death threats in September 2009 when he was one of eight journalists included in a hit list distributed anonymously in Makhachkala.

The list claimed to be seeking revenge for the deaths of police and civilians during Dagestan's unrest.

Kamalov may have been included for his sympathetic portrayals of rebel fighters.

Hundreds attended Kamalov's funeral.

Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, said: "Kamalov's death is terrible and it will have a monstrous effect on the free press in Dagestan. He had many enemies because of Chernovik's searching reports on corrupt businesses and the transgressions of the local siloviki [law enforcement bodies]."

Lokshina blamed the murder on the Russian authorities' governing of the region: "Even if there was a personal aspect to his murder then it became possible because of the atmosphere of complete impunity which the Russian authorities have allowed to flourish there."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that the "murder of Gadzhimurat Kamalov [...] is a lethal blow to press freedom", adding that his murder was "a massive loss for independent journalism in the North Caucasus, Russia's most dangerous place for reporters".

The CPJ had already awarded its press freedom award in 2010 to Chernovik former editor Nadira Isayeva, and the newspaper's reputation for modern muckraker journalism was well known outside of the North Caucasus.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO both called for a credible investigation into the Kamalov assassination.

The main case against Chernovik had ended in acquittal on 19 May 2011.

At one point, when Chernovik lost its financial backers, Kamalov took out loans using his flat as collateral, despite the fact that his wife and child lived there.

He also would sell off office equipment, until he finally found new backers.

As the owner, Kamalov did not interfere with the editorial content of the newspaper and he encouraged his journalists to report the truth, according to accounts by Mairbek Agayev, a political columnist for Chernovik, and Mahir Pashayev, a business and economics reporter.

"It is the only newspaper without any censorship," said Pashayev.

Besides being behind the news, Gadzhimurat Kamalov was often called on to be a source for media outlets who were looking for an expert to analyze the deteriorating situation in Dagestan.

On 25 November 2011, Kamalov led a protest of somewhere between 3,000 and 5,700 participants against the unlawful use of force and the disappearance of civilians allegedly by security forces, an issue on which Chernovik has focused.

Kamalov was shot eight times as he was exiting Chernovik's headquarters on Magomed Hajiyev Street in Makhachkala, Dagestan, a Russian province in the north Caucasus region, around 11:45 p.m., 15 December 2011.

The gunman was masked, shot 14 rounds in total, and sped away from the scene of the crime in a black Lada Priora.