Europe & Central Asia

New York, September 27, 2005—Six newspapers that have covered an opposition candidate's presidential campaign were prevented on Monday from publishing their current editions, according to local and international press reports. Managers at the private printing company Vremya-Print in the financial capital of Almaty refused to explain why they would not publish Epokha, Svoboda Slova, Zhuma-taims, Apta.kz, Azat, and Soz.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005

Epokha
Svoboda Slova
Zhuma-taims
Apta.kz
Azat
Soz.
CENSORED

Six newspapers that have covered an opposition candidate's presidential campaign were prevented from publishing their current editions, according to local and international press reports. Managers at the private printing company Vremya-Print in the financial capital of Almaty refused to explain why they would not publish Epokha, Svoboda Slova, Zhuma-taims, Apta.kz, Azat, and Soz.

New York, September 22, 2005—A Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating the 2000 kidnapping and beheading of journalist Georgy Gongadze has accused former President Leonid Kuchma and three senior officials of plotting the murder. In an announcement to parliament on Tuesday the commission named Kuchma, late former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin, and Leonid Derkach, former head of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) as the masterminds of Gongadze's murder.

New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Islam Karimov to stop scapegoating the press and to end his government's campaign of intimidation and repression against the independent media. The government crackdown, which has targeted several international news organizations in dozens of incidents over four months, is part of a broad effort to obscure the full extent of the May 13 massacre in the eastern city of Andijan.

New York, September 21, 2005—The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear charges that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate and prosecute the 1994 murder of Moscow reporter Dmitry Kholodov, the journalist's parents told the Committee to Protect Journalists today.

Kholodov, a reporter for the independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, was killed in October 1994 after investigating alleged corruption involving high-ranking military leaders, including then-Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. Six defendants, four of them military officers, were tried in Russian courts but acquitted.

New York, September 12, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a civil court ruling ordering the closure of the Tashkent office of Internews Network, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy organization. Internews said the court made its ruling on Friday on the basis of the August 4, 2005 criminal conviction of two Internews employees for technical violations such as broadcasting without a license and using an unregistered logo.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005

Internews Network
Legal Action

A civil court ordered the closure of the Tashkent office of Internews Network, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy organization. Internews said the court made its ruling on the basis of the August 4, 2005 criminal conviction of two Internews employees for technical violations such as broadcasting without a license and using an unregistered logo.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2005
Posted September 8, 2005

Bert Sundstrom, SVT television, Sweden
Legal Action

Sundstrom, a correspondent for Swedish public broadcaster SVT in Moscow for the past three years, was forced to leave on September 3 after the government refused to extend his visa.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005
Posted September 2, 2005

Yuri Bagrov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Harassment

Bagrov was prevented by Russian police from covering the first anniversary of the Beslan school hostage tragedy. Bagrov, a North Caucasus correspondent for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, told CPJ he was held for four hours after arriving in the north Ossetian town of Beslan, where thousands had gathered to mourn the 331 victims of the siege of School No. 1 a year ago. Bagrov was released after questioning but he was unable to cover the anniversary. He said police told him he did not have proper accreditation.

New York, September 1, 2005— The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced outrage at the unrelenting harassment of reporter Yuri Bagrov who was prevented by Russian police today from covering the first anniversary of the Beslan school hostage tragedy.

Bagrov, a North Caucasus correspondent for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, told CPJ he was held for four hours after arriving in the north Ossetian town of Beslan, where thousands have gathered to mourn the 331 victims of the siege of School No. 1 a year ago. Bagrov was released after questioning but he was unable to cover the anniversary. He said police told him he did not have proper accreditation.