Anna Politkovskaya appearing in the WIDE ANGLE documentary The Russian Newspaper Murders two years before her own murder.

Politkovskaya was murdered two years ago at age 48 in a contract-style killing in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on October 7, the birthday of then-President Vladimir Putin. Having won international acclaim for her reports exposing the brutality of Russian and Chechen troops in Chechnya, her murder immediately threw suspicion on the Russian and Chechen security forces. On the anniversary of Politkovskaya’s death last week, commemorative posts flooded the Russian blogosphere.

Three men are facing trial for connection with her killing: two Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, charged with surveillance of Politkovskaya, and a Russian police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, charged with providing technical support. All three deny the accusations. So far, Russian authorities have failed to identify the mastermind of the murder, and the suspected gunman, a third Makhumdov brother, remains at large.

Colleagues from Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, lobbied to have the case opened to the public and the media. But authorities decided instead on a military trial, claiming that much of the material involved is classified.

Moskalenko, who is representing Politkovskaya’s son and daughter, is a prominent human rights attorney whose clients have included Kremlin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon jailed by Putin in 2003; opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov; and Alexander Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer who was murdered two years ago after ingesting a highly toxic radioactive substance. In an interview yesterday with the television station FRANCE 24, Moskalenko reacted to her suspicious run-in with mercury: “The exact nature of the act is not clear. Was the intention to provoke or to harm us, to poison me? Those who did this clearly intended to keep me unaware of the presence of the substance. But we’re still waiting for final results from police and forensic investigations.”

The Moscow judge at yesterday’s hearing refused a request that the session be delayed because of Moskalenko’s sudden illness, and pretrial hearings began without her. The next court date is set for November 17, with jury selection scheduled for the following day.

Prior to her murder, Anna Politkovskaya appeared in WIDE ANGLE’s 2004 film The Russian Newspaper Murders boldly testifying about the risks journalists face in modern-day Russia.

Twenty-five years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the struggle for political reform is the big story. With rare access, WIDE ANGLE films behind the scenes with the young reporters of one of Iran’s leading reformist newspapers. Founded less than a year ago and already Iran’s 4th largest daily, the Shargh newspaper (its name means simply East) has quickly built a loyal readership among Iran’s intellectuals, opinion makers, politicians, and the young. Its photography and design borrow from the New Yorker and London’s Independent; its chief economics editor is 23 years old. With such a youthful staff (the average age is 28), with more female journalists than any other paper, and committed to professional journalism and neutral reporting, Shargh is a lightning rod for censorship. Indeed, its own editors evaluate constantly what stories to print without crossing an indefinable line. Authorities have closed the paper down once already, on the eve of the February 20 election, for printing an open letter from reformist MPs to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei criticizing the disqualification of more than 2,000 reformist candidates.

WIDE ANGLE documents three weeks in the life of this remarkable newspaper, following reporters out on stories ranging from Saddam Hussein’s first appearance in court; to a horrific bus collision that exposes Iran’s abysmal road safety record; to the trial of a professor sentenced to death for criticizing the ruling clerics; to the death of Marlon Brando. The story of these daring journalists, who struggle to report the news without incurring the “blade of censorship” they say is an ever-present threat, offers powerful insight into the complexities of today’s Iran.