Europe & Central Asia
2005
Belgrade broadcaster forced to evacuate following threat
New York, July 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a bomb threat made late Thursday night against the Belgrade-based independent radio and television station B92. An anonymous caller told a B92 security guard that a bomb would explode in an hour inside the station’s offices because of its “anti-Serb campaign,” according to local news…
CPJ seeks investigation into cameraman’s death at drag-race site
New York, July 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a thorough and aggressive investigation into the death of Pavel Makeev, 21, a cameraman for Puls television in the southern Russian town of Azov. Makeev’s body was found alongside a road on the outskirts of the Rostov Region town on May 21, shortly…
The Moscow Declaration
e, the relatives and colleagues of journalists murdered in Russia, along with Russian and international press freedom advocates, who convened for a conference in Moscow on July 7, 2005, declare the following: The lack of progress in investigating journalist murders undermines freedom and democracy in Russia, and demonstrates the lawlessness and impunity with which Russian…
CPJ urges Putin to end era of impunity’ in journalist murders
Moscow, July 8, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Vladimir Putin to end a deplorable era of impunity for the murder of journalists during his five-year tenure. “We are calling on President Putin to ensure that the Prosecutor-General’s Office makes greater progress in solving these brutal murders,” said CPJ…
Editor hospitalized after beating by two attackers
New York, July 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an attack against Nikolai Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk’s independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, who was beaten by two unidentified assailants on June 28. Kochurov remained hospitalized today with head and arm injuries after being struck with a heavy object by assailants who were waiting…
Opposition daily hit by three libel judgments
New York, July 5, 2005—A district court in Minsk has handed down judgments against the opposition daily Narodnaya Volya (The People’s Will) in three separate civil defamation trials and ordered the daily to pay a total of 115 million Belarusian rubles (US$53,500) in damages, according to local and international reports. Narodnaya Volya staff told the…
U.S. sends wrong message to the world
Restrictive regimes around the world came out ahead. Many were already taking a cue from a U.S. case involving the leak of a CIA officer’s name when the Supreme Court announced this week that it would not hear an appeal by two journalists. The reporters, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times, face 18-month jail terms for not revealing their confidential sources.
Russian journalist assassinated in Dagestan
New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder late Tuesday of Magomedzagid Varisov, a prominent journalist and political analyst, who was gunned down in a contract-style assassination in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan.
RUSSIA
JUNE 28, 2005 Posted: July 1, 2005 Magomedzagid Varisov, Novoye Delo KILLED—CONFIRMED Machine-gun toting assailants opened fire on Varisov’s sedan at around 9 p.m. as he was returning home with his wife and driver. Varisov sustained multiple bullet wounds and died at the scene. His wife was not injured; the driver was hospitalized with injuries,…