New York, September 14, 2004—A court in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent shut the media training organization Internews-Uzbekistan yesterday for six months for violating a law regulating non-governmental organizations, according to local and international press reports. The closure comes amid a broad government crackdown on the independent media and non-governmental organizations ahead of parliamentary elections…
Unrest shatters press freedom gains in the Democratic Republic of Congo with attacks and imprisonments surging yet again.A Special report by Julia Crawford The fragile state of press freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo was shattered when the eastern city of Bukavu fell briefly to Rwandan-backed rebels in early June. State-imposed restrictions and imprisonment,…
New York, September 8, 2004—A cameraman with the Chisinau-based state television station Moldova One was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison this week after trying to cover the seizure of a Moldovan railway station in the breakaway enclave of Trans-Dniester. The cameraman, Dinu Mija, and Moldova One correspondent Lyudmila Munteanu were on assignment…
New York, September 7, 2004— Independent media coverage of last week’s hostage crisis in Beslan, Russia, was obstructed several times by detentions or harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Thirty to 40 heavily armed fighters, allegedly of Chechen, Ingush and North Ossetian origin, took more than 1,000 children, parents and teachers hostage on…
New York, September 3, 2004-—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at today’s decision of a Moscow court to sentence prominent journalist Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for the Russian Service of the U.S. governmentfunded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), to five days in prison for “hooliganism.” According to local press reports, police at Vnukovo Airport…
New York, September 2, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was poisoned last night en route to Beslan, North Ossetia, where about 40 heavily armed fighters, reportedly of Chechen and Ingush origin, seized hostages at an elementary school yesterday.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned about an escalating campaign of intimidation and harassment against independent and opposition journalists in Tajikistan. The actions are further eroding press conditions at the very moment your citizens most need a free press–for the run-up to parliamentary elections in early 2005.
New York, August 25, 2004—Armenian photojournalist Mkhitar Khachatryan was assaulted after photographing the opulent homes of government officials in the central Armenian resort city of Tsakhkadzor yesterday, according to local and international press reports. Khachatryan, with the news agency Fotolur, and Anna Israelyan, a correspondent with the independent daily Aravot, were reporting on damages caused…
Washington, August 19, 2004—A delegation led by the Committee to Protect Journalists met with senior U.S. and Russian officials today, calling on them to work together to aggressively investigate and prosecute those responsible for the July murder in Moscow of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov. “We urge U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President…