13th Autumn Session of the Congress of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe

Moscow 13-15 November

Speech by Halvdan Skard, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, during the meeting with the editorial stuff of Anna Politkovskaya

We are here because we care. We care about the life and death of Anna Politkovskaya, a courageous journalist who always stood up first to all injustice which we see in the world today. We are here because we care about the freedom of expression, which cannot be shut down by bullets. We are here because we care about the freedom of human being – freedom from fear, that your courageous action may lead you to your death.

There may be much talk about values and virtues but we only realise their worth when we come face to face with the evil, as what happened with Anna. It was Winston Churchill who said that courage is the main virtue because without it, all other virtues have no meaning.

We have come here today to pay tribute to the woman who had courage, that essential virtue which makes us stand up to injustice, and say what others may not dare to say. And it is our great honour to be today with the colleagues of Anna who knew her and worked with her. You are not alone. We all are with you.