Europe & Central Asia
2005
RUSSIA
JUNE 28, 2005 Posted: July 7, 2005 Nikolai Kochurov, Severodvinsky Rabochy ATTACKED Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk’s independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, was beaten by two unidentified assailants and hospitalized with head and arm injuries. Assailants waiting in the entry to Kochurov’s apartment building struck him with a heavy object as the journalist left for work that…
Russian reports say Maksimov murdered
New York, June 28, 2005–Police in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg consider three senior police investigators to be suspects in the June 2004 disappearance of local reporter Maksim Maksimov, according to local press reports. Police now believe the journalist was murdered for his work, those reports said. Maksimov, 41, an investigative reporter for…
Russian court imposes prison term in defamation case
New York, June 24, 2005—An arbitration court in the southern Russian city of Saratov convicted Eduard Abrosimov, a journalist and adviser to former regional governor Dmitry Ayatskov, of criminal defamation on Wednesday and sentenced him to seven months in a prison colony for defaming public officials in two articles published last year in national and…
CPJ gravely concerned about threat against editor
Dear Prime Minister Kostunica: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply dismayed by the Serbian Interior Ministry’s failure to promptly respond to a credible death threat made against Grujica Spasovic, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based independent daily Danas (Today). An anonymous telephone threat was made to the newspaper on June 11 after Danas reported that your government has identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is hiding. We call on you to ensure that the threat is thoroughly investigated and that appropriate protection is provided to Spasovic.
Opposition photojournalist dies six months after dispute
New York, June 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by the death on Sunday of Alim Kazimli, photo correspondent for the Baku-based opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat (New Equality). Despite a lengthy hospital stay and home medical treatment for a December 2004 stroke that left him partially paralyzed, the 51-year-old Kazimli died several…
Opposition photojournalist dies
New York, June 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by the death on Sunday of Alim Kazimli, photo correspondent for the Baku-based opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat (New Equality). Despite a lengthy hospital stay and home medical treatment for a December 2004 stroke that left him partially paralyzed, the 51-year-old Kazimli died several…
Correspondent detained, passport seized
New York, June 20, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued harassment of Tulkin Karayev, a correspondent for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Police in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi stopped Karayev last Thursday as he was trying to travel to the capital, Tashkent, to seek medical treatment, Karayev…
Russian prosecutors identify alleged mastermind in Klebnikov murder
New York, June 16, 2005—The Russian Prosecutor-General’s office said today that a Chechen separatist leader ordered the July 2004 slaying of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russia, according to local and international press reports. Vasily Lushchenko, spokesman for the prosecutor-general’s office, identified the suspected mastermind as Khozh Akhmed Nukhayev, the subject of Klebnikov’s 2003 Russian-language…
UZBEKISTAN
JUNE 16, 2005 Posted: June 21, 2005 Tulkin Karayev, Institute for War and Peace Reporting HARASSED Police in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi stopped Karayev as he was trying to travel to the capital, Tashkent, to seek medical treatment, Karayev told CPJ in a telephone interview. The detention came just two days after Karayev…
Court sentences journalist to five years in prison colony
New York, June 15, 2005—An arbitration court in the central Russian city of Smolensk convicted independent journalist Nikolai Goshko on charges of criminal defamation and sentenced him to five years in a prison colony for defaming three Smolensk officials in a July 2000 broadcast on the independent station, Radio Vesna.