Europe & Central Asia documents by Year:
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 16, 2018
April 19, 2018 5:51 PM ET
Journalists in prison An Istanbul court on April 17 arraigned Adil Demirci, a Turkish-German dual national and reporter for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), on charges of "being a member of a [terrorist] organization" and "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," according to the German news agency Deutsche...
CPJ calls for investigation into death of Russian journalist Maksim Borodin
April 16, 2018 6:01 PM ET
New York, April 16, 2018--Russian authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the death of journalist Maksim Borodin and consider the possibility that he was killed in retribution for his reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
Kazakhstan police raid newsrooms, detain journalists, seize equipment
April 13, 2018 6:00 PM ET
New York, April 13, 2018--Kazakh authorities should stop harassing journalists with the independent news outlets Forbes Kazakhstan and Ratel and dismiss criminal defamation suits against the two outlets and their journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 9, 2018
April 12, 2018 5:06 PM ET
Journalists Imprisoned An Istanbul court on April 6 arraigned İhsan Yaşar and İhsak Kabul, the publisher and responsible news editor respectively for the recently seized pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgürlükçü Demokrasi, on charges of "being members of a [terrorist] organization" and "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," the daily Evrensel reported....
Freedom of speech is guaranteed Aliyev says as Azerbaijan blocks news websites
April 9, 2018 3:59 PM ET
President Ilham Aliyev claims that in Azerbaijan the internet is free and press freedom is guaranteed. But ahead of the April 11 snap elections, authorities have systematically silenced critical voices online through amending laws and blocking news websites, and hackers have attacked independent news outlets....
Czech investigative journalists say police repeatedly questioned them
April 6, 2018 1:22 PM ET
Brussels, April 6, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Czech authorities to ensure that journalists can work without interference. Three Czech investigative journalists issued a joint statement on April 3 that said police tried to intimidate them by repeatedly bringing them in for questioning over their reporting...
Azerbaijan goes to the polls amid muzzled media and blocked websites
April 6, 2018 12:02 PM ET
When it comes to silencing critics, Azerbaijani authorities have been industrious and methodical. Ahead of snap presidential elections scheduled for April 11, potential opposition candidates have been either jailed or barred from running, and the political landscape has been cleansed of virtually all formal avenues of expressing dissent....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 2, 2018
April 5, 2018 4:54 PM ET
Journalists sentenced An Istanbul court convicted in a retrial Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist and a columnist for the news website T24, on charges of "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," and issued a suspended sentence of 18 months and 22 days, according to an April 3 report from...
Prosecutor in Ukraine flouts court, refuses to return journalist's passport
April 4, 2018 4:23 PM ET
New York, April 4, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukrainian prosecutors to return the passport of Fikret Huseynli, a Dutch national of Azerbaijani origin, and to respect a district court's April 2 ruling that the journalist should not be extradited to Azerbaijan or have his movements...
In Montenegro, car bomb explodes outside journalist's home
April 4, 2018 1:34 PM ET
Brussels, April 3, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Montenegrin authorities to ensure the safety of prominent investigative journalist Saed Sadikovic after a car bomb exploded outside his home in the northern town of Bijelo Polje on April 1....