Europe & Central Asia
2011
Attacks on the Press 2010: Serbia
Top Developments • Authorities win convictions in anti-press attacks, improve access to information. • Constitutional Court strikes down restrictive media ownership regulations. Key Statistic 3: Suspects convicted and sentenced to prison for threats against B92 journalist. Serbian authorities stepped up law enforcement efforts in attacks against journalists, winning convictions in high-profile cases, even as they…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Turkey
Top Developments • Authorities use anti-terror, defamation, security laws to prosecute journalists. • EU criticizes press record, citing prosecutions, insufficient legal guarantees. Key Statistic 0: Convictions obtained in the 2007 slaying of editor Hrant Dink. Authorities paraded journalists into court on anti-terror, criminal defamation, and state security charges as they tried to suppress critical news…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Ukraine
Top Developments • Provincial reporters targeted in a series of attacks; editor reported missing. • Television journalists continue to face heavy political influence. Key Statistic 1: Mastermind identified in Gongadze murder. Prosecutors stir controversy by blaming only a dead official for the plot. The disappearance of a critical editor, a series of violent attacks, and…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Uzbekistan
Top Developments • State deploys analysts to build sweeping criminal defamation cases. • Numerous regional and international news websites are blocked. Key Statistic 6: Journalists in prison on December 1, the highest figure in the region. Even as President Islam Karimov was calling for more “active” news reporting, his government was rolling out a new…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Europe and Central Asia Developments
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2010 • Main Index Europe and Central Asia Regional Analysis: • On the Runet, Old-School Repression Meets New Country Summaries • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Belarus • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Russia • Serbia • Ukraine • Uzbekistan • Other nations CROATIA In November, the Municipal Court in Zagreb convicted six…
Paris and Brussels mobilize for Hrant Dink murder trial
On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, was gunned down in front of his office building in Istanbul. The murder sent shockwaves through the Turkish and international human rights and press freedom communities. It also triggered a mobilization of thousands of Turkish intellectuals, activists, and citizens that…
Andrzej Poczobut sentenced to prison in Belarus
New York, February 11, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s imprisonment in Minsk of Andrzej Poczobut, a Grodno correspondent for the largest Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and calls on Belarusian authorities to release him immediately.
Press Cuba to keep promise to free journalists
Dear President Rodríguez Zapatero: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that the Cuban government has yet to fulfill its promise to free all journalists imprisoned during the 2003 crackdown on dissent. We urge your government, which was a key party to the agreement to release the prisoners by November 2010, to hold President Raúl Castro to his word.
Guardian correspondent expelled from Russia
New York, February 8, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Russian authorities today to allow Luke Harding, Moscow correspondent for the U.K. Guardian, to return to Russia and resume his work. Harding, at left, was refused entry to Russia on Saturday.The journalist had temporarily returned to London in the fall to report on U.S.…
Russian media combats false piracy prosecutions
Some good news out of Samara. As we’ve reported previously, trumped-up piracy accusations have been frequently used in Russia to intimidate independent media. Sergei Kurt-Adzhiyev, a Russian editor, has spent years fighting piracy prosecutions against himself and his publications in the region. This week, he was declared not guilty. Russia’s Finance Ministry was ordered to…