european-union

UZBEKISTAN

President Islam Karimov engaged in a full-fledged offensive against the independent press. Unrelenting government persecution drove out more than a dozen foreign correspondents and local reporters working for foreign media; continual harassment forced at least two news agencies and a media training organization to close their offices. Karimov and his allies used trumped-up charges of terrorism and extremism to jail media critics, political opponents, and human rights advocates. At least three journalists were imprisoned, and a number of others were detained for brief periods. Using police intimidation and a state-media smear campaign, the Karimov regime made clear that it would not tolerate any deviation from its official, sanitized version of events.

Moscow, February 10, 2006—The Belarusian government's persecution of the country's few independent newspapers undermines the integrity of the March 19 presidential election in which Aleksandr Lukashenko seeks a third term, the Committee to Protect Journalists and two regional press freedom organizations said today. The groups called on the Russian Federation, the European Union, and the United States to renounce the vote if Belarusian authorities continue to deny the public access to independent reporting.

Istanbul, Turkey, February 7, 2006—Scuffles erupted between riot police and Turkish nationalist lawyers at the start of the trial today of five journalists in a freedom of speech case given prominence by Turkey's European Union application.

After more than two hours of courtroom chaos, the judge adjourned the hearing until April 11 to allow the prosecution time to study a barrage of defense objections to charges stemming from articles that criticized a ban on a university conference about the mass killing of Armenians during World War I, a powder keg issue in Turkey.

Istanbul, Turkey, February 6, 2006—Five prominent Turkish journalists are due to appear in court on Tuesday on charges of insulting the judiciary for criticizing a court decision to ban an academic conference on the killing of Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire. The case has embarrassed Turkey, which is in negotiations to join the European Union.

An Istanbul state prosecutor charged the five journalists—Murat Belge, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircioglu and Ismet Berkan of the daily Radikal, and Hasan Cemal of the daily Milliyet—under Article 288 of the penal code with attempting to influence the outcome of a trial through their writing. All except Berkan also face prosecution under Article 301 for publicly denigrating "Turkishness" and the institutions of the Turkish state. If convicted, they could face prison terms of six months to 10 years.

New York, January 26, 2006—A Polish journalist convicted in a rare criminal libel prosecution has been freed two days into his prison term after the country's top constitutional court ordered the suspension of his sentence, according to news reports.

Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie in the town of Police, was released from a municipal prison in the northwestern city of Szczecin on January 18. The criminal libel charge stemmed from two February 2001 articles alleging that Piotr Misilo, speaker of the promotion and information unit of the Police City Council, had obtained his post through blackmail and used the position to promote his private advertising business.

New York, January 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the dropping of charges of "insulting Turkishness" against an acclaimed author but is appalled that journalists still face jail under the same draconian statute.

A court in Istanbul dismissed Monday the prosecution under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code of novelist Orhan Pamuk who made reference in a Swiss newspaper interview to the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. The European Union, which Turkey is attempting to join, hailed the decision as good news for freedom of expression but called on Turkey to close loopholes in its penal code.

New York, January 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the imminent jailing of Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Wiesci Polickie in the northwestern town of Police. Convicted of libeling a local official in articles published in 2001, Marek is due to begin serving a three-month sentence on Monday, according to CPJ sources.

New York, January 10, 2006—Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid has instructed military officials to open a criminal inquiry after a Zurich-based weekly SonntagsBlick published a confidential document about purported CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, according to international press reports.

Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Blaise Defago said on Monday that Schmid "ordered an investigation into how this secret document became public" and may take legal action against SonntagsBlick for publishing the document in violation of Swiss law, The Associated Press reported.

New York, December 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a new law that makes criticism of authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and his government punishable by up to five years in prison. Lukashenko secretly signed the amendments to the penal code on December 15. They were registered on December 20 and will become law at the end of the year, the Minsk-based human rights organization Charter 97 said in a statement.