CPJ: investigate threats to paper over Chechen gay torture
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An international journalists' rights organization is calling on Russian authorities to investigate threats made against a newspaper that reported gays were being tortured and killed in Chechnya.
The report this month in the respected Novaya Gazeta drew a range of official denials and rebukes. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on Sunday said international attention to the story constituted a "massive information attack ... to blacken our society, lifestyle, traditions and customs."
A meeting of elders and Islamic leaders in Chechnya after the story appeared called for retribution, which Novaya Gazeta said "pushes religious fanatics toward the massacre of journalists."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Russia should "act swiftly, decisively and effectively" against threats to the newspaper and to the story's reporter.