Europe & Central Asia

New York, November 10, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the assault of journalist Aleksei Volosevich, one of the few independent reporters still working in Uzbekistan who witnessed the Andijan massacre.

Volosevich, correspondent for the Moscow-based Central Asia news Web site Ferghana.ru, was attacked by five unidentified men near his apartment in the capital Tashkent on Wednesday. He told CPJ the men knocked him to the ground, kicked him, and then doused him with paint which temporarily blinded him. Volosevich, 38, was not hospitalized.

New York, November 9, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a series of abuses against the press before and during Sunday’s fraud-marred parliamentary election in Azerbaijan. Government officials blocked at least three foreign news agencies from deploying satellite equipment that would have enabled live coverage, while harassing several local journalists who were trying to cover the vote, according to local and international news reports.

New York, November 9, 2005—The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday found the Ukrainian government liable for 100,000 euros in damages in a lawsuit filed by the widow of slain journalist Georgy Gongadze. The court found in favor of Myroslava Gongadze, who claimed the government failed to protect her husband and then failed to properly investigate his 2000 abduction and murder.

OCTOBER 26, 2005
Posted: December 2, 2005

BBC
Deutsche Welle
The Associated Press
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
HARASSED

The BBC World Service closed its Tashkent office and withdrew staff because of continued harassment by authorities because of its reporting on the May 13 massacre in the northeast city of Andijan. Other local and foreign media have been intimidated since the killing of between 500 and 1000 anti-government protesters by troops.

New York, October 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the government harassment of foreign media in Uzbekistan, which today prompted the BBC to close its Tashkent bureau. The BBC World Service said it would immediately close its office and withdraw staff because of continued harassment since its reporting of the May 13 massacre in the northeast city of Andijan. Other local and foreign media have been intimidated since the killing of between 500 and 1000 anti-government protesters by troops.

An Uzbek reporter risked her life to tell the world of Andijan assault.

New York, October 20, 2005—Vasily Grodnikov, a freelancer who wrote for the Minsk opposition newspaper Narodnaya Volya, was found dead with a head wound in his apartment outside Minsk on Monday, local and international news agencies reported.

CPJ is seeking to determine whether Grodnikov, 66, was murdered in retaliation for his journalistic work.

Authorities have harassed Narodnaya Volya in retaliation for its criticism of President Aleksandr Lukashenko. State-run kiosks are not permitted to sell the newspaper and authorities recently ended its printing contract, forcing it to use a printer in the neighboring Russian city of Smolensk.

New York, October 19, 2005—The Prosecutor General's Office in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, is blocking the release of independent journalist Jumaboy Tolibov despite a Supreme Court ruling on October 11 setting him free, a local press freedom group said.

The National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (NANSMIT), a Dushanbe-based press freedom group which has been monitoring Tolibov's case, said that Tolibov was being held in a detention center in the town of Istarafshan in the northern region of Sogd. Tolibov was jailed after criticizing a local prosecutor in three newspaper articles in 2004.