{"id":7072,"date":"2017-04-19T16:03:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T10:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=7072"},"modified":"2017-04-19T16:05:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T10:20:05","slug":"journalist-who-broke-chechnyas-gay-concentration-camp-story-to-flee-russia-following-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/journalist-who-broke-chechnyas-gay-concentration-camp-story-to-flee-russia-following-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Who Broke Chechnya\u2019s \u2018Gay Concentration Camp\u2019 Story To Flee Russia Following Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Kathmandu (Pahichan) April 19 &#8211; Journalist Elena Milashina, whose investigative reporting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.novayagazeta.ru\/articles\/2017\/04\/04\/72027-raspravy-nad-chechenskimi-geyami-publikuem-svidetelstva\">first<\/a> unearthed claims of the detainment, torture and murder of over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com\/rjmedwed\/reports_chechnya_opens_concentration_camp_to_detain_and_torture_gay_men\">100 gay men<\/a> in concentration camp-like facilities in Russia\u2019s federal republic of Chechnya, has fled her home in Moscow following threats of retaliation. Next, she will flee Russia altogether.<\/h4>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"padtopmore\">\n<p>Milashina writes for the Russian newspaper <em>Novaya Gazeta, <\/em>which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pg\/novgazenglish\/about\/?ref=page_internal\">describes<\/a> itself as \u201cwell known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs.\u201d In 2009, she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2015\/06\/10\/russia-investigative-journalist-facing-death-threats\">won<\/a> the \u201cAlison Des Forges Award\u201d for \u201cindividuals who put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others\u201d from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/\">Human Rights Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, the veteran journalist discussed press freedom in Russia at the Front Line Defenders Dublin Platform in Ireland. \u201cIn one kind of way,\u201d she said, video below, \u201cI am quite an unusual Russian journalist, because I can write exactly what I see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embedly-embed\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FM_Zbt8XA0UE%3Fwmode%3Dtransparent%26feature%3Doembed&amp;wmode=transparent&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DM_Zbt8XA0UE&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FM_Zbt8XA0UE%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=e1208cbfb854483e8443b1ed081912ee&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In a telephone interview with <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2017\/04\/15\/she-broke-the-story-of-chechnyas-anti-gay-purge-now-she-says-she-has-to-flee-russia\/?utm_term=.27150565591f\">The Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, Milashina discussed the Chechan human rights violations, her article\u2019s international attention and her decision to flee Russia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reaction was very panicked and hysterical, but at the same time very threatening,\u201d Milashina <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2017\/04\/15\/she-broke-the-story-of-chechnyas-anti-gay-purge-now-she-says-she-has-to-flee-russia\/?utm_term=.27150565591f\">said<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve covered Chechnya for many years at <em>Novaya Gazeta <\/em>\u2013 many years, decades. This was the first time in our history, however, that they used religion. 15,000 people got together in the main mosque of Chechnya and announced a jihad against the staff of <em>Novaya Gazeta<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She further discussed the danger she was faced with following publication, a danger shared by <em>all<\/em> of the newspaper\u2019s staff. \u201cThis was a clear jihad message. We will persecute you for tarnishing the honor of the Chechen nation\u2026 There are gays among Chechen people? We will persecute you until the last person at <em>Novaya Gazeta <\/em>dies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(A spokesperson for Chechen authoritarian leader Dmitry Kadyrov echoed these extreme sentiments, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com\/brody_levesque\/kremlin_we_have_no_knowledge_of_gay_men_being_detained_in_chechnya\">denying<\/a>\u00a0the existence of the concentration camps as gay men \u201cdo not exist in Chechnya.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Kadyrov announced clearly that journalists are under the Kremlin\u2019s protection and that no one can kill them for their professional duty,\u201d Milashina said. \u201cThe threat still exists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will just live for a while in another country,\u201d she continued, \u201cstill working on Chechnya.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe situation reminds the Western world of the same situation that was in Nazi Germany,\u201d Milashina said of the international attention her story had received. \u201cAt first, people are scared of the information. They can\u2019t believe it\u2026 But it\u2019s clearly real, and I think that\u2019s why people are raising their voices now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Russian government should be pushed more,\u201d Milashina insisted. \u201cThey haven\u2019t done anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GLAAD\u2019s president Sarah Kate Ellis has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glaad.org\/blog\/us-ambassador-nikki-haley-should-condemn-chechen-attacks-lgbtq-men-and-investigate-reports\">called<\/a> for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to take action, something you can join her in by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/usun.state.gov\/contact\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org.uk\/actions\/stop-abducting-and-killing-gay-men-chechnya\">sign<\/a> Amnesty International\u2019s petition <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/get-involved\/take-action\/chechnya-stop-abducting-and-killing-gay-men\/\">here<\/a>, or donate to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtnet.org\/en\/endonate\">Russian LGBT Network<\/a>, which is dedicated to promoting equal rights and respect in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Copy :\u00a0http:\/\/www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) April 19 &#8211; Journalist Elena Milashina, whose investigative reporting first unearthed claims of the detainment, torture and murder of over 100 gay men in concentration camp-like facilities in Russia\u2019s federal republic of Chechnya, has fled her home in Moscow following threats of retaliation. Next, she will flee Russia altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":7073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[621,490,3,11],"tags":[446,524],"class_list":["post-7072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-slider","category-society","category-world","tag-gay","tag-lgbt"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7075,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072\/revisions\/7075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}