Europe & Central Asia documents by Year:
Kazakhstan government-backed security certificate raises censorship, surveillance concerns
July 22, 2019 3:35 PM ET
New York, July 22, 2019 -- Telecommunications providers in Kazakhstan's capital, Nur-Sultan, have requested internet users to install a security certificate issued by government authorities onto their personal devices, which could compromise their digital security, according to a report by the BBC and Adil Nurmakov, a political scientist and...
Ingushetia court orders journalist Rashid Maysigov to remain in pre-trial detention for two months
July 22, 2019 1:00 PM ET
Washington, D.C., July 22, 2019 -- Authorities in the Republic of Ingushetia must release journalist Rashid Maysigov unconditionally and investigate allegations that he was tortured in custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today....
CPJ leads call for new European Commission President to prioritize press freedom
July 21, 2019 11:50 PM ET
CPJ and 19 other organizations write to new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and urge her to ensure that media freedom, the protection of journalists, and EU citizens' access to information are top political priorities during her term.
Turkish court sentences documentary filmmakers to 4 and a half years
July 19, 2019 3:07 PM ET
Istanbul, July 19, 2019--Documentary filmmakers Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and Çayan Demirel, directors of the 2015 documentary movie "Bakur" ("North"), about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were sentenced to four years and six months in prison yesterday for "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization" by a court in the southeastern...
For Turkish journalists in Berlin exile, threats remain, but in different forms
July 18, 2019 5:16 PM ET
For Can Dündar, sitting in the audience of a theater performance near Dortmund in Germany in May was an emotional moment. In an interview with CPJ, he recalled how during the premiere night, he watched the main actor on stage playing a journalist as he was imprisoned in Turkey,...
Tajik authorities harass journalist Humayra Bakhtiyar and family
July 18, 2019 3:45 PM ET
In July 2019, Humayra Bakhtiyar, a Tajik journalist living in exile who was recently granted asylum in a European Union country, told CPJ in a phone call that Tajik authorities have harassed and intimidated her family over the past several years as retribution for her critical reporting....
Pro-Russia broadcasters attacked, threatened with violence in Ukraine
July 16, 2019 2:20 PM ET
On July 13, 2019, at approximately 3:40 a.m., an unknown attacker fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Kiev office of TV news broadcaster 112 Ukraine, damaging the building but causing no injuries, according to media reports....
'It should not be accepted as normal': Female journalists on harassment, intimidation in the Netherlands
July 15, 2019 10:30 AM ET
The Netherlands is generally considered to have a positive press freedom reputation, but when the independent Dutch Association of Journalists released the findings of its survey of over 350 female journalists in May, over half said they had been subjected to intimidation or violence in their work and around...
Report by Turkish pro-government think tank criticizes foreign outlets, journalists
July 9, 2019 3:20 PM ET
On July 5, 2019, Turkey's Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research, an Ankara-based think tank, released a report that described some foreign media outlets operating in Turkey and their correspondents as "anti-government" and "pro-terrorism."...
UK should not deny media access based on propaganda label
July 9, 2019 2:21 PM ET
CPJ writes to U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to express concern at his government's decision to deny accreditation to Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik based on a determination that the outlets are a form of propaganda. The move empowers autocratic governments around the world who use a similar rationale to justify the repression of critical journalism.