Europe & Central Asia

New York, September 11, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by a police attack earlier this week on a group of independent and opposition journalists outside the police headquarters in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.

The attack occurred after 4 p.m. on Monday, September 8, in front of the headquarters while the journalists, were covering the arrival of Popular Front activist Fuad Mustafaev for police questioning, said local press reports.

New York, September 5, 2003—Russia’s Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Russian journalist Grigory Pasko challenging his December 2001 criminal conviction for treason.

Ivan Pavlov, Pasko’s attorney, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he received a letter on Thursday, September 4, from the Supreme Court’s deputy chairman, Anatoli Merkushov, informing him that the court would not hear an appeal to review the December 25, 2001, criminal verdict.

Dear Mr. Ubaydulloyev:

Joel Simon, Josh Friedman, and I appreciated the opportunity to meet with you on July 22 to discuss press freedom conditions in Tajikistan.

We also appreciate your willingness to review a letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) outlining our specific concerns about the country's criminal defamation laws and problems regarding journalists' access to government information.

Dear Mr. Imomov:

Joel Simon, Josh Friedman, and I appreciated the opportunity to meet with you on July 21 to discuss the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) list of 29 journalists who were murdered during and after Tajikistan's civil war.

We believe very strongly that the only way the government of Tajikistan can combat the pervasive culture of fear and self-censorship lingering from the civil war is by aggressively investigating and prosecuting those responsible for these murders.

New York, August 27, 2003— Following a two-week mission to Tajikistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists sent letters today to Azizmat Imomov, Tajikistan’s deputy prosecutor general, and Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev, parliamentary chairman and mayor of the capital, Dushanbe.

The letters were based on three-days of intensive meetings with government officials in which the CPJ delegation expressed deep concerns that those who murdered journalists during Tajikistan’s bloody 1992-1997 civil war have not been brought to justice. The delegation consisted of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and CPJ board member Josh Friedman, CPJ deputy director Joel Simon, and CPJ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator Alex Lupis.

New York, August 20, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns a district court's conviction of independent journalist German Galkin on criminal defamation charges in the southern city of Chelyabinsk in Russia's Ural mountains.

According to local and international press reports, on August 15, following a trial that was closed to the public, the court sentenced Galkin to one year in a labor camp for allegedly libeling and insulting two deputy governors of the Chelyabinsk region, Andrei Kosilov and Konstantin Bochkaryov. Galkin is publisher of Rabochaya Gazeta and deputy chief editor of Vecherny Chelyabinsk, both opposition newspapers.

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) believes that the arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of journalist and human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov are part of a politically motivated campaign to suppress press freedom in Uzbekistan.

Police and the security service have threatened and harassed Sharipov for several years because of critical articles he has written for the Russian news agency Prima and for the Union of Independent Journalists of Uzbekistan's Web site (www.uiju.org) describing police abuses and press freedom violations. Many of Sharipov's articles were published on the Internet in English, making them far more accessible to an international audience compared with articles written by other Uzbek journalists and human rights activists.

New York, August 12, 2003—The Moscow City Court upheld an earlier July 24 district court ruling today denying a foreign passport to Russian journalist Grigory Pasko.

Ivan Pavlov, Pasko's attorney, told CPJ in a telephone interview today that Pasko plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Pasko was convicted of treason and sentenced to four years in prison on December 25, 2001, for intending to leak classified information to Japanese news outlets about the Russian Pacific Fleet's dumping of nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan. Pasko was released on parole based on good behavior in January 2003 after having served two-thirds of his sentence.

New York, July 29, 2003—Tajikistan's Supreme Court today convicted two suspects in the murders of Muhiddin Olimpur, head of the BBC's Persian Service bureau, and Viktor Nikulin, a correspondent with the Russian television network ORT, both of whom were killed during the country's civil war in the mid-1990s.

Narzibek Davlatov and Akhtam Toirov were sentenced to 15 and 22 years in prison, respectively, for serving as accomplices in the slayings. The two men were arrested in October 2001, and their trial began in June 2003.

Dushanbe, July 24, 2003—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the government of Tajikistan to combat the culture of fear and self-censorship lingering from its bloody 1992-1997 civil war by investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the murders of dozens of journalists during that period.

The delegation also called on the government to reverse its culture of secrecy by making its activities and deliberations more accessible to journalists and the public.