The International Journalists’ Solidarity Day 2013 took place in Moscow last Sunday 7 September. The event, which is organised by the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), an EFJ/IFJ affiliate, and supported by UNESCO, is a powerful day of demonstrations and events to commemorate colleagues who have been killed, to promote freedom of expression and strengthen solidarity in the struggle to combat impunity against journalists in Russia.

To mark this important day, now in its third year, the Russian orchestra, led by Yury Bashmet, gave a memorial music concert in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory to pay tribute to those journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The event was attended by hundreds of media professionals, human rights activists, members of the general as well as prominent personalities in Russia such as the Chair of Moscow Helsinki group Ludmila Alexeeva and the Chair of Russian Council of Human rights Mikhail Fedotov.

The IFJ and EFJ leaders sent messages of solidarity which were read by RUJ Secretary and EFJ Vice President Nadezhda Azhgikhina.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of the special Politkovskaya award which was won by Olga Allenova, an investigative journalist who works for the Russian newspaper Kommersant in the North Caucasus.

The award, established by RUJ and given to a journalist who has excelled in the field of press freedom and human rights, is named after Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya. Anna, known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict, was shot and killed in the lift of her block of flats in 2006, an unresolved murder that continues to attract international attention.