A former bodyguard to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma claimed to have recorded conversations which implicated the government in Mr Gongadze's murder.
Civil rights groups had demanded an open examination of the tapes, but the government refused and the recordings were examined by a team of five government-commissioned officers. At a press conference on 10 September, the team announced that the tapes were bogus and that the president's voice could not be idenitified.
"As we feared, the government's new examination of crucial tape-recordings apparently made by an ex-aide to President Leonid Kuchma has been done very secretively, so we reject the justice ministry's 10 September statement that they are bogus," said RSF.
The UK's National Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists have campaigned hard for Mr Gongadze's killers to be brought to justice and both organisations have denounced the decision.
Mr Gongadze, former editor of web newspaper Pravda.ru, had been investigating corruption in the Ukrainian government. His headless body was found in a ditch in a suburb of Kiyv on 16 September 2000.
More news from dotJournalism:
Man admits killing journalist
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Something rotten in the state of Ukraine?
See also:
RSF: http://www.rsf.org
NUJ: http://www.nuj.org.uk
IFJ: http://www.ifj.org
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