Europe & Central Asia documents by Year:
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 18, 2017
June 21, 2017 11:09 AM ET
Prosecutor asks to reopen investigation into journalist for interview Public prosecutor Umut Tepe petitioned a Turkish court to allow him to reopen his investigation into jailed Cumhuriyet reporter Ahmet Şık on charges of producing propaganda for a terrorist organization, Cumhuriyet reported yesterday. Tepe had previously dropped charges against the...
Azerbaijan sentences journalist to seven years in prison
June 20, 2017 5:09 PM ET
New York, June 20, 2017--Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release Fikret Faramazoglu, chief editor of the news website Journalistic Research Center, from prison and investigate the journalist's claims that he was severely beaten in custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Faramazoglu was sentenced on June 14 to seven...
Journalist missing in eastern Ukraine
June 16, 2017 12:53 PM ET
New York, June 16, 2017--Authorities in eastern Ukraine should do everything possible to locate freelance journalist Stanyslav Aseyev, who has been missing from his home in the city of Donetsk since June 3, according to news reports and his employer....
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 11, 2017
June 12, 2017 10:51 AM ET
Twelve witnesses against journalist say testimony extracted under torture Twelve out of 13 witnesses prosecutors called yesterday to testify that Nedim Türfent, a former reporter for the shuttered, pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), was a member of a terrorist organization recanted their written testimony, saying police extracted it under...
Turkey releases French photographer Mathias Depardon
June 9, 2017 2:54 PM ET
New York, June 9, 2017--Turkish authorities should allow French photographer Mathias Depardon to live and work freely in Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Depardon's lawyer, Emine Şeker, told CPJ that the photographer was deported to France today....
Kyrgyzstan investigates journalist for incitement after he criticizes ethnic slurs
June 9, 2017 2:35 PM ET
New York, June 9, 2017--Kyrgyz authorities should drop a criminal investigation into independent journalist Ulugbek Babakulov, allow him to work freely, and cease blocking access to a news website that published his writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security officials are investigating Babakulov on suspicion of "inciting...
CPJ joins call for Georgia to investigate case of exiled journalist forcibly taken back to Azerbaijan
June 7, 2017 3:01 PM ET
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 22 international rights organizations in calling on Georgia's Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to ensure that the case of Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azerbaijani journalist living in exile in Tbilisi who is now in custody in the country's capital, Baku, is fully investigated. CPJ documented...
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 4, 2017
June 5, 2017 1:19 PM ET
News websites blocked for 25th, 44th time, respectively The Turkish telecommunications regulator BTK blocked access to the website of the pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Özgürlükçü Demokrasi--for the 25th time--and to the leftist news website sendika.org--for the 44th time, the press freedom collective Ben Gazeteciyim ("I am a journalist") reported yesterday....
Kyrgyz journalist receives death threats
June 1, 2017 4:57 PM ET
New York, June 1, 2017--Authorities in Kyrgyzstan should ensure the safety of independent journalist Ulugbek Babakulov, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Babakulov, who has been the target of intense criticism from lawmakers and pro-government media since he criticized nationalist social media posts in an article last week,...
Exiled journalist abducted in Georgia to face prosecution in Azerbaijan
May 30, 2017 5:58 PM ET
New York, May 30, 2017--Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release freelance journalist Afgan Mukhtarli and allow him to return to neighboring Georgia, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Mukhtarli, whose wife reported him missing from their home in Tbilisi, Georgia, last night, is being held at a detention center...