It is known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs, the Chechen wars, corruption among the ruling elite, and increasing authoritarianism in Russia.

[1][2] Seven Novaya Gazeta journalists, including Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, and Anastasia Baburova, have been murdered since 2000, in connection with their investigations.

[7] In October 2021, Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Maria Ressa, for their safeguarding of freedom of expression in their homelands.

On 28 February 2002, the bank won the case in Moscow's Basmanny municipal court, and was awarded 15 million rubles (about $500,000) in lost revenue, an unprecedented sum for Russian newspapers that might undermine the very existence of Novaya Gazeta, especially as on 22 February Novaya Gazeta had been ordered by the same Basmanny court to pay about $1 million for a corruption allegation against the Krasnodar Krai's top judge.

[19][20] In 2004, the newspaper printed seven articles by columnist Georgy Rozhnov which accused Sergey Kiriyenko of embezzling US$4.8 billion of International Monetary Fund moneys in 1998 when he was Prime Minister of Russia.

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

[34] In 2017 Novaya Gazeta published reports about anti-gay purges in Chechnya, where 3 men were allegedly killed, and dozens detained and intimidated.

[37][38] In October 2021, Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Maria Ressa, for their safeguarding of freedom of expression in their homelands.

[41] On 28 March, after it received another warning from Roskomnadzor, the newspaper announced that it would suspend its online and print activities until the end of the "special military operation".

[14] That same month the Russian Supreme Court revoked Novaya Gazeta's online license, making it no longer available on the internet in Russia.

[50] The film uses videos from several months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine until Novaya Gazeta, Radio Echo of Moscow, and Rain TV closed down and its staff fled to other countries for their safety.

A few days before the November 2017 election, Muratov announced that he would not stand, as he felt that there was need for a change after his 22 years in the position, but that he would continue to work for the newspaper.

[55][56] Investigations have found that Domnikov had written a series of reports about life in the Lipetsk region in 1999–2000, in which he criticized the local government for corruption, which was the motive for Dorovskoi to incite others to kill the journalist.

[60] Politkovskaya wrote in an essay that the editors received: "Visitors every day in our editorial office who have nowhere else to bring their troubles, because the Kremlin finds their stories off-message, so that the only place they can be aired is in our newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

[64] In November 2023, President Vladimir Putin pardoned a former law enforcement involved in the murder, for serving in a Russian penal military unit.

[60][65] Journalist and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot and killed in Moscow on 19 January 2009 while leaving a press conference about his last minute appeal against the early release of Yuri Budanov, a former Russian military officer convicted for kidnapping and aggravated murder of a young Chechen woman.

[66] Anastasia Baburova, a freelance journalist for Novaya Gazeta and a member of Autonomous Action, was with Markelov at the time and was shot in the head and also killed.

Estemirova was kidnapped from a sidewalk on 22 July 2009 in the Chechnyan capital Grozny, and two hours later was killed and her bullet-riddled body was found in the neighboring Ingushetia Republic.

[68][69] In 2018 three journalists of Novaya Gazeta, Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev, and Orkhan Dzhemal, were killed in an ambush outside the town of Sibut in the Central African Republic.

[74] Svobodnoe Prostranstvo ("Free Space", Russian: Свободное Пространство), which had been a colour supplement to Novaya Gazeta, is included in the Friday issue.