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Alert

Website suffers hacker attack after posting interview with murdered rights activist

(CJES/IFEX) - The editors of an opposition website in Ingushetia have reported a new, powerful hacker attack against their site.

"A day and a half after the site http://Ingushetiyaru.org published exclusive material, the last interview given by human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in July 2009, the website experienced another powerful attack, which rendered the site inoperable. Hacker attacks against the site began in early January," the site's editor, Lidiya Mikhalchenko, told the news website Kavkazsky Uzel.

Mikhalchenko believes the recent attack is connected to the Estemirova interview. "As soon as we get the portal working again, the interview and all other materials will become accessible to the public again. However, in that case we will have more reason to be concerned about those people who are directly working on the site," Mikhalchenko said. Nevertheless, the site's editors have no intention to stop the work of the site despite the difficulties. She said, "We have no intention of quitting this work, even though it's journalism in extreme situations. We are not doing this for money or reward. For example, I personally want to make a contribution to the protection of our right to our profession. My colleagues in the Caucasus are virtually deprived of this right," she said.

Mikhalchenko recalled that the attacks on the site began on 6 January 2010.

The interview published on Ingushetiyaru.org was given by Estemirova to Kavkazsky Uzel before her killing. According to statistics on the YouTube website, the video was viewed by 4,000 people in Russia, the United States, Europe, Australia and other countries.