Europe & Central Asia
2005
President flees amid unrest, fraud, censorship
New York, March 25, 2005—At least one Kyrgyz journalist was hospitalized with injuries and another arrested as police tried to break up the escalating unrest that prompted President Askar Akayev to flee the country this week. The demonstrations, which toppled yet another authoritarian regime in Central Asia, came amid widespread anger over fraud-marred parliamentary elections—and…
Court reduces financial penalty against independent daily
New York, March 24, 2005—An appeals court yesterday reduced the massive damages levied against the independent Moscow daily Kommersant in what a newspaper lawyer called a “tactical victory” in its ongoing legal battle over its reporting on last summer’s banking crisis. Moscow’s Federal Arbitration Court upheld the finding of liability but reduced the damages to…
After outcry, president pardons imprisoned opposition editor
New York, March 21, 2005—Facing international pressure, President Ilham Aliyev pardoned the imprisoned editor of an opposition newspaper yesterday as part of a decree ordering the release of dozens of political prisoners, according to local and international press reports. Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat, had been jailed for 17 months after his arrest during…
Russian correspondent forced to leave Ashgabat
New York, March 18, 2005—One of the few foreign journalists in Turkmenistan, the Ashgabat correspondent for the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, has been forced to leave the country under circumstances that remain unclear. Viktor Panov was seen in handcuffs at Ashgabat’s airport accompanied by several men in civilian cloths who led him to…
Authorities intensify persecution of independent newspaper
New York, March 16, 2005—Russian authorities in Chechnya and the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod are escalating their campaign of harassment and intimidation against Pravo-Zashchita (Rights Defense), a monthly newspaper that covers human rights abuses in Chechnya, according to local press reports. The newspaper is published by the nongovernmental organization Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS)…
Supreme Court upholds acquittal in Kholodov murder case
New York, March 16, 2005—In a major setback in the decade-long quest to bring the killers of slain Russian journalist Dimitry Kholodov to justice, the Military Collegium of Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld a June 2004 acquittal of six military officers accused of murdering Kholodov. Kholodov, a reporter for the Moscow-based independent newspaper Moskovsky…
Attacks on the Press in 2004: Facts
When U.S.-led forces waged an offensive in Fallujah in November and a state of emergency was declared, the Iraqi interim government’s Higher Media Commission directed the media to “set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear.” Those that didn’t comply…
Cameraman killed
New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating today’s murder of an Iraqi cameraman in Mosul who was working for a Kurdish television station. According to several international press reports, gunmen shot and killed Hussam Hilal Sarsam, listed in some reports Hussam Habib. The reports stated that the journalist was kidnapped before…