Europe & Central Asia
2011
Estemirova investigation on wrong track, colleagues say
Two years ago, as she was leaving home on a hot Wednesday morning in Grozny, several attackers forced Natalya Estemirova, the prominent journalist and human rights defender, into a car. A young witness–who later fled for fear of reprisal–recalled that Estemirova cried out she was being kidnapped and that a white Lada sedan then sped…
Journalists take stage: Q&A with ‘Record’ playwright
The true stories of journalists from Mexico, Sri Lanka, Russia, the United States, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories will hit the stage July 20 at London’s Arcola Theatre. “On the Record,” which runs through August 13, examines the careers of six journalists, the risks they face, and their determination to make an impact through their…
BBC reporter released in Tajikistan
New York, July 14, 2001–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of Urinboy Usmonov, a BBC World Service correspondent, detained in June in Tajikistan and calls on authorities to fully exonerate him and remove restrictions on travel. Tajik authorities released Usmonov on bail but continue to charge him with extremism while imposing a…
Tajikistan continues to hold BBC journalist
New York, July 13, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Tajik prosecutors in Khujand, northern Tajikistan, to drop politicized extremism charges against BBC reporter Urinboy Usmonov, and calls for his immediate release. The journalist is being charged with failing to report the activities of the Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir to Tajik law enforcement agencies, Usmonov’s lawyer,…
Dozens of journalists detained in Belarus crackdown
New York, July 7, 2011–Belarusian authorities must immediately cease their ongoing crackdown against the independent press and release all journalists in state custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police in Minsk and other cities across the country detained at least 28 journalists on Wednesday who were covering protest rallies that opposition activists have…
Release Swedish journalists immediately
New York, July 7, 2011–Following Ethiopian state television’s broadcast of a clip presenting jailed and injured Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye as accomplices to terrorists, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopia to immediately release the two journalists.
Armed man pursues journalist in Moscow
Moscow, July 7, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Moscow police to thoroughly investigate today’s incident involving Vadim Rechkalov, a political commentator with the popular daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, in which an unknown man threatened him with a gun.
After the Black Spring, Cuba’s new repression
When the last of 29 journalists jailed in a notorious 2003 crackdown was finally freed this year, it signaled to many the end of a dark era. But Cuban authorities are still persecuting independent journalists through arbitrary arrests, beatings, and intimidation. A CPJ special report by Karen Phillips