Oleg Slabynko

Oleg Slabynko was born in 1962 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Slabynko was interested in journalism all of his life and by the age of 24 was already in a position of importance in his chosen profession. He was divorced and lived together with his parents and elder daughter in an apartment in Moscow.[1]

By the time he was 33, Slabynko became the producer of multiple TV programs on Russian Television Channel 2, including Forgotten Names and the Moment Istiny (Moment of Truth).[1] Slabynko came to work for Channel 2 at the time Boris Yeltsin was in political control of the Channel and wanted it used for his political goals. His appointed head of Russian television, Chairman Vyacheslav Bragin, who wanted to clean up broadcasting from corruption. To pursue this goal, Bragin hired two young associates to replace an experienced executive. This was why Bragin hired the 30-year-old Slabynko as chairman of the Ostankino television station without Slabynko having any previous experience in television. Slabynko had only worked for Bragin for two months as his press secretary but he had earned the trust of his boss.[4][5][6]

Three years later, Slabynko was the producer of two news programs, Moment Istiny or the Moment of Truth and Forgotten Names on Russian Television Channel 2. The Moment of Truth program allowed for Russian civilians to ask questions of prominent public figures.[7] He was also a general manager of Time Moves Forward, an advertising agency.[8] He employed strong, hard-hitting journalists to give the Moscow public the news. He was a main contributor for the freedom of speech movement in Russia.[2]

A map of the Moscow Oblast region where Slabynko was assassinated.

Oleg Slabynko was shot dead by two unidentified individuals in his own apartment in Moscow on 25 January 1996 at 10:30pm.[9] The apartment was located on Klinskaya Ulitsa.[10] Before Slablynko was attacked at his front door, his assassins called his apartment to make sure he was there.[8] The gunmen approached his apartment and shot Slabynko four times at close range with a 9mm gun, according to Moscow Police.[11] Slabynko was known to air hard hitting, abrasive news and Moscow in the 1990s was not the safest place for journalists. An unidentified group was contracted to kill leaders and people of influence in Moscow. Over a twenty-year period, 562 Russian officials were murdered.[3]

During the years 1992–2012, 562 journalists were murdered in Russia. Russia does not have the right to freedom of press like the United States. According to Freedom of the press in Russia, the right is in Russia's constitution but the government has implemented many laws to force the press to censor themselves when it comes to controversial issues. Many journalists in Russia were at risk, due to the many groups disagreeing with the issues they were reporting.[10] Anna Politkovskaya was one of these journalists that was murdered in 2006. She attacked the Russian government and Vladimir Putin of not protecting or thoroughly investigating the murders of 562 journalists.[12] A vast majority of these murders, Slabynko and Politkovskaya's included, have gone cold, unsolved for the past 23 years.[10]

Oleg Slabynko's murder called light to the contract murders of Russian journalists. Many prominent business owners and public figures were murdered in 1996 alone. Slabynko's death rose awareness of the eminent danger that public figures were in all across Russia. Russians were reminded by Slabynko's murder of a previous murder of Vladislav Listyev, a famous talk-show host and State Television executive, who was also shot to death at his home in March 1995.[11] The publication of criminal activity that goes on in Russian television and advertising was brought to Russian civilians following this murder.[3] A special police unit was created after these two high-profile murders.[13]

It took a month for the Russian general prosecutor to assign a police task force to investigate the murders of Slabynko and three other Russian journalists.[8] Slabynko's former boss did not believe that Slabynko would have been murdered for what he chose to air on television but police reports have proven otherwise.[10] The UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor condemned the assassins of Oleg Slabynko and said the following: "I learned with dismay about the murder of Oleg Slabynko and condemn it in the strongest terms. UNESCO defends the existence in its Member States of an independent and pluralistic press, an essential component for any democratic societies. I call on Russian authorities to do everything within their power to guarantee the conditions of security for journalists to carry out their profession."[14]

• List of journalists killed in Russia
• Freedom of the press in Russia
• Human rights in Russia