anna politkovskaya
2003 hero/russia
As an award-winning correspondent for the Moscow daily Novoya Gazeta, Politkovskaya has often straddled the thin line between reporting a story and becoming part of it. Her efforts to mediate at the besieged school in Beslan last September were thwarted when she fell seriously ill; the result, she claims, of poison slipped in her tea on the flight there. For her commitment to free speech and democracy, she was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in January.