2008

The world watched in horror when Paul Klebnikov was gunned down in Russia. Much was done to solve the case. Then it all came unraveled in a Moscow court.

The Web site EurasiaNet has an article today looking at concerns surrounding the shutdown of foreign radio broadcasts in Azerbaijan. We released an alert on this troubling development on November 3, expressing concern at plans by President Ilham Aliyev’s administration to discontinue the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

New York, November 3, 2008–Croatian police have charged five men in the October 23 murder of two employees of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, according to international news reports.

New York, November 3, 2008–CPJ is deeply troubled by a top regulator’s announcement on Friday that the Azerbaijani government plans next year to discontinue local radio transmissions of three international broadcasters–the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America (VOA).

New York, October 23, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the deaths of Ivo Pukanic, owner and editorial director, and Niko Franjic, marketing director, of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional.

After learning today that Ivo Pukanic, owner and editorial director, and Niko Franjic, marketing director, of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, were killed when a bomb exploded under Pukanic’s car parked outside the paper’s building, we issued the following statement…

Alisher Saipov, a 26-year-old independent editor, was brutally silenced on October 24, 2007. An unidentified killer fired at him three times, using a Makarov pistol, in his hometown of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. 

Last weekend I participated in a conference in Venice, Italy, on climate change and the press. The meeting was hosted by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev under the auspices on the World Political Forum, an organization Gorbachev founded in 2003 to foster discussion on “crucial problems that affect humankind.”

New York, October 14, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the welfare of Russian lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, who represents the family of slain Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Moskalenko was the target of an apparent poisoning in Strasbourg, France, days before she was due to appear in a Moscow court for pretrial…

New York, October 10, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s politicized imprisonment of independent journalist Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.