Supian Ependiyev

Supian Ependiyev was a veteran correspondent and editor-in-chief for the independent Chechen weekly "Groznensky Rabochy", who was killed while covering a Russian army's ballistic missile attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny. [ [http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/deathwatch.html?year=1999 IPI DEATH WATCH] ]

On the evening of October 27, 1999, several short-range ballistic missile hit a crowded outdoor market in central Grozny, killing or wounding hundreds of people, mostly civilians. About an hour after the attack, Ependiyev went to the scene to cover the carnage for his paper. Nevertheless, as he was leaving the site, a new round of rockets fell about 200 meters from the bazaar. Ependiyev suffered severe shrapnel wounds and died in a Grozny hospital the next morning. [ [http://www.cpj.org/protests/99ltrs/Chechnya5nov99.html Correspondent killed in Grozny rocket attack] ] (According to other sources, he died two days later. [ [http://www.globaljournalist.org/archive/Magazine/deathwatch-19994q.html IPI Death Watch] ] )

Ependiyev was the first journalist to be killed while covering the Second Chechen War. During the First Chechen War twenty journalists were killed. [ [http://www.ifex.org/20fr/layout/set/print/content/view/archivefeatures/212/offset/50 RUSSIA (CHECHNYA): CAMERAMAN KILLED] ]

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