Europe & Central Asia
2005
Journalist arrested; facing extradition to UN war crimes tribunal
New York, October 7, 2005—A Croatian journalist was arrested Thursday and faces extradition to the Hague-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after being accused of identifying a protected witness and failing to appear at a hearing on a contempt of court charge. Croatian police in the southern city of Split…
UKRAINE
OCTOBER 4, 2005 Posted October 11, 2005 Natalya Vlasova, 34 Kanal ATTACKED Reporter Natalya Vlasova of 34 Kanal, a television station in the eastern industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk, was attacked in a downtown street by an unidentified assailant who warned her to stop investigating the political party headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko. Vlasova…
Journalist released after serving criminal libel sentence
New York, September 28, 2005 – Eduard Abrosimov was released from prison two weeks early on Wednesday after a court in the southern Russian city of Saratov upheld his criminal libel conviction and reduced his sentence from seven months to time served. Abrosimov, a journalist and adviser to former regional governor Dmitry Ayatskov, was convicted…
As Kazakhstan vote nears, six papers blocked from publishing
New York, September 27, 2005—Six newspapers that have covered an opposition candidate’s presidential campaign were prevented on Monday from publishing their current editions, according to local and international press reports. Managers at the private printing company Vremya-Print in the financial capital of Almaty refused to explain why they would not publish Epokha, Svoboda Slova, Zhuma-taims,…
KAZAKHSTAN
SEPTEMBER 26, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 Epokha Svoboda Slova Zhuma-taims Apta.kz Azat Soz. CENSORED Six newspapers that have covered an opposition candidate’s presidential campaign were prevented from publishing their current editions, according to local and international press reports. Managers at the private printing company Vremya-Print in the financial capital of Almaty refused to explain…
Inquiry names Kuchma as mastermind in Gongadze murder
New York, September 22, 2005—A Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating the 2000 kidnapping and beheading of journalist Georgy Gongadze has accused former President Leonid Kuchma and three senior officials of plotting the murder. In an announcement to parliament on Tuesday the commission named Kuchma, late former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin, and Leonid…
CPJ demands end to Uzbek government’s crackdown on media
New York, September 22, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Islam Karimov to stop scapegoating the press and to end his government’s campaign of intimidation and repression against the independent media. The government crackdown, which has targeted several international news organizations in dozens of incidents over four months, is part of a…
Dmitry Kholodov’s parents allege improprieties in investigation
New York, September 21, 2005—The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear charges that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate and prosecute the 1994 murder of Moscow reporter Dmitry Kholodov, the journalist’s parents told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. Kholodov, a reporter for the independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, was killed in October…
CPJ condemns closure of Internews
New York, September 12, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a civil court ruling ordering the closure of the Tashkent office of Internews Network, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy organization. Internews said the court made its ruling on Friday on the basis of the August 4, 2005 criminal conviction of two…