Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches Paperback - 2011

Excerpt

"I will not go into all the joys of the path I have chosen: the poisoning, the arrests, the menacing by mail and over the Internet, the telephoned death threats. The main thing is to get on with my job, to describe the life I see, to receive visitors every day in our newspaper’s offices....What am I guilty of? I have merely reported what I witnessed, nothing but the truth."
--From an article found on Anna Politkovskaya’s computer after her death; it is addressed to her readers abroad

Media reviews

Praise for Is Journalism Worth Dying For?

"Is Journalism Worth Dying For? is a book of sustained moral witness....a plangent document of journalistic heroism."
—Dwight Garner, New York Times 

"Of all the investigative reporters I've been acquainted with, Politkovskaya might have embodied the most remarkable combination of courage (some might call it foolhardiness) and talent...Is Journalism Worth Dying For? is a marvelous testament to her courage and skill."
—Steve Weinberg, San Francisco Chronicle

"There is pathos and sorrow in these pages, but also hope and lightness...beautifully, even lyrically, written."
—Michael J. Bonafield, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Her enduring importance derives from her refusal to capitulate despite seemingly unbearable pressure--and, even more basically, her commitment to rigorous on-the-ground reporting when journalists, even when not faced with official intimidation, spend more time with PR flacks than sources and vicitims."
—Jason Farago, Barnes and Noble Review 

"An essential book for budding Russia hands, followers of world events and fans of good journalism."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review 

"An inspiring collection."
—Booklist

Praise for Anna Politkovskaya

“Suppression of freedom of speech, of expression, reaches its savage ultimate in the murder of a writer. Anna Politkovskaya refused to lie in her work; her murder is a ghastly act, and an attack on world literature.”
—Nadine Gordimer

"Anna Politkovskaya defined the human conscience. Her relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of danger and darkness testifies to her distinguished place in journalism—and humanity.” —Christiane Amanpour, anchor of ABC News This Week

“She is the voice of conscience faced with brutal inhumanity and the peril that goes with it. But this superb collection of the pieces she wrote for Novaya gazeta adds another dimension. It measures her as a journalist against other journalists round the world. It reveals a superb original technician.”
—Peter Preston, The Observer

“Like all great investigative reporters, Anna Politkovskaya brought forward human truths that rewrote the official story. We will continue to read her, and learn from her, for years.”
—Salman Rushdie