The newspaper is known for its reporting on sensitive topics such as governmental corruption, human rights violations,[3] electoral fraud, police violence, and other misuses of power.

[5] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine; on 28 March 2022, the newspaper announced that it would suspend its online and print activities after it received a second warning from Roskomnadzor.

[7] Dmitry Muratov was born on 29 October 1961 into a Russian family in the city of Kuibyshev (officially known since 1991 by its original name, Samara).

His superiors were so impressed that by the end of his first year he was appointed to head of the Komsomolskaya Pravda youth department, and later was promoted to editor of news articles.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev donated some of his Nobel Peace Prize money to pay for salaries and computers for the paper.

[15][17] Muratov often reported on sensitive topics including human rights violations, high-level government corruption, and abuse of power.

Congressmen Philip Crane, Mike Pence, Charlie Norwood, Dan Burton and Henry Bonilla and posted on the website of the American Defense Council.

[21] In 2016, the newspaper was involved in the publishing of the so-called Panama Papers, confidential documents from a Panama-based law firm that had assisted companies and individuals from around the world in hiding their wealth.

Novaya Gazeta published reports about anti-gay purges in Chechnya in 2017, where three men were allegedly killed, and dozens detained and intimidated.

[26] On 4 March 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill introducing prison sentences of up to 15 years for those who publish "knowingly false information" about the Russian armed forces and their operations, leading to some media outlets in Russia to stop reporting on Ukraine or shutting their media outlet.

[31] On 28 March 2022, the newspaper suspended its print activities after receiving a second warning from Roskomnadzor;[6] on 6 April 2022, a foreign version of the paper (Novaya Gazeta Europa) was launched from Riga in order to avoid censorship.

He also said that "In Russia political repression will continue against all opponents of the regime" and that the only hope he has "lies with the young generation; those people who sees the world as a friend, not as an enemy".

[37] In March 2023, Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, was detained on charges of "repeatedly discrediting the armed forces".

[38] At the hearing, he was accompanied by Dmitry Muratov, who said that Orlov was being tried "for observing the Russian Constitution" which, he argued, guarantees freedom of expression.

"[2] The Nobel Committee specifically commended Novaja Gazeta's "critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and 'troll factories' to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia.

"[52] In an interview with Meduza, Muratov commented that his Nobel Prize belongs to all journalists of Novaya Gazeta who were killed for conducting their investigations:[53] It's not mine.

[55][56] In 2024, a documentary using real-time videos of how the staffs of Novaya Gazeta, Radio Echo of Moscow, and Rain TV coped with the government's suppression of the freedom of speech, was made.