european-union

In power for nearly two decades, President Islam Karimov had little trouble securing another seven-year term in office. He faced three candidates but no genuine opposition in a December election that international observers said was neither free nor fair. Though constitutional term limits seemed to constrain the president from seeking re-election at all, the Central Election Commission cleared Karimov for another run without bothering to explain its reasoning. Throughout, the regime continued to suppress dissent and independent voices.

Politicized court cases, media laws, harrassment, undermine a nation's press freedom gains. by Joel Campagna and Kamel Labidi

To King Mohammed VI and the government of Morocco:

New York, June 25, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Friday’s brutal attack on Iren Karman, an investigative journalist who had published a book and made a documentary film on illegal oil sales in 1990s Hungary.

Unknown assailants assaulted Karman in the outskirts of the capital, Budapest, on Friday evening, pushed her into a car, tied and severely beat her, and left her on the banks of the Danube River, where a fisherman found her and summoned authorities, the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) reported.

May 9, 2007

Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Federal Foreign Minister of Germany
Auswärtiges Amt
Werderscher Markt 1, 10117 Berlin

Via Facsimile: +49 30 5000 3402

Dear Minister Steinmeier,

The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the European Union, to consider the Uzbek government's appalling press freedom record during your May 14 discussions on the possible lifting of targeted EU sanctions imposed against Uzbekistan in the aftermath of the 2005 Andijan crisis. As Germany holds the EU presidency, we ask you to take a leadership role in bringing this issue to the forefront.

Some press gains are reported in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan but the Color Revolutions have yet to deliver lasting reforms.

New York, May 8, 2007—A Tashkent appellate panel set independent Uzbek journalist Umida Niyazova free from prison today, reducing the jail term handed down last week to a suspended sentence. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Niyazova’s release but expressed concern at her standing conviction.

“We are relieved that our colleague Umida Niyazova is free and can be reunited with her family,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But we’re troubled that her conviction and baseless imprisonment has had a further chilling effect on what’s left of the Uzbek press.”

New York, April 25, 2007—Despite encouraging statements from Palestinian leaders, the Committee to Protect Journalists remains deeply concerned about the safety of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, abducted in Gaza six weeks ago.

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmad said in a statement that Johnston was alive and “in good health,” the BBC reported Tuesday. “The government is fully coordinating with the presidency and all security services to pursue the extensive efforts to release Johnston and bring him back safely to his home, family, and his work,” al-Ahmad said in the statement, which was issued after a meeting with Richard Makepeace, the British consul general in Jerusalem.

The Chavez administration pulls a broadcast license as it asserts media muscle.

A wave of criminal prosecutions against the press reignited doubts about Turkey’s commitment to Western-style democracy and a free press just one year after the nation began formal talks for European Union membership. Journalists and writers found themselves the repeated targets of criminal lawsuits initiated under vaguely worded, restrictive statutes that remained on the books despite recent legislative reforms. Those who tackled controversial topics such as the country’s ethnic Kurds, criticism of the military and the courts, the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, or criticism of the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, were the primary victims.