The founder and editor-in-chief of the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, has been awarded the International Press Freedom Award in New York.
The award was established in 1991 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. It is given to four winners every year who risk their lives to protect press freedom. Novaya Gazeta is known for investigating corruption cases and human rights violations in Russia. Three of the paper's journalists have been killed since 2000. In the latest incident the investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead near her home in October 2006.