Europe & Central Asia
2017
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 17, 2017
Journalists sentenced A court in Turkey’s southeastern Hakkâri region on December 15 sentenced Nedim Türfent, a former reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), to eight years and nine months in prison for “being a member of a [terrorist] organization,” the independent news website Bianet reported.
Local journalist shot in southern Russia
New York, December 21, 2017–Russian authorities should investigate today’s violent attack on independent journalist Vyacheslav Prudnikov, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Prudnikov, who contributes to the independent regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel from the town of Krasny Sulin in Russia’s southern Rostov region, was shot with a weapon…
Finnish police search journalist’s home following article on intelligence monitoring
Brussels, December 19, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Finnish authorities not to take action that could limit the flow of information to the public. Finnish police on December 17 searched the Helsinki home of journalist Laura Halminen, who had recently co-authored an article about a classified intelligence monitoring program, according to news…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 11, 2017
Media workers released An Istanbul court on December 8 ordered three employees from the advertisement department of the now shuttered daily Zaman–Hüseyin Belli, Onur Kutlu and İsmail Küçük–to be freed pending trial, the English-language news blog Turkish Minute reported. The three are part of a trial that started in September 2017 which, as CPJ previously…
Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression
For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser
Russia designates nine U.S.-funded news outlets as foreign agents
New York, December 5, 2017–Russia’s Justice Ministry announced today that it has designated nine U.S. government-funded press outlets as “foreign agents,” under a newly expanded law, according to reports. The ministry named the outlets as the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven of its affiliates, and Voice of America. Under the law, outlets…
Malta arrests 10 suspects over murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Brussels, December 4, 2017–Maltese police, armed forces, and security services today arrested 10 suspects in connection with the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced. Caruana Galizia was killed on October 16 when her car was blown up. In Malta, police have 48 hours to question suspects before charging or releasing…
