Balancing Act
StoryMap: Press freedom in EU candidate countries Press freedom is a key factor for countries working toward EU membership. Currently five countries—Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey— and two potential candidates—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo— are applying to become member states. This StoryMap explores the challenges journalists in those countries have faced in the past five years….
Bulgarian journalists are under attack
This summer, for good reason, the world’s attention was focused on Turkey. Anti-government protests over plans to destroy a park in downtown Istanbul attracted global attention. Ankara’s strategic importance in Syria and the Middle East, as well as being a member of NATO, makes what happens in Turkey important.
Television journalist’s car explodes in Bulgaria
New York, October 14, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s attack on Sasho Dikov, a Bulgarian journalist with private national television channel Kanal 3, and calls on investigators to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.
Israeli forces detain journalists aboard humanitarian flotilla
New York, June 1, 2010–Israel should immediately release the journalists it detained along with hundreds of peace activists on Monday after Israeli forces stormed a convoy of ships carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. According to international news reports and CPJ interviews, Israeli forces arrested at least 20…
Chronicler of Bulgarian criminal underworld is slain
New York, January 5, 2010—Bulgarian prosecutors must thoroughly investigate today’s murder in Sofia of Bobi Tsankov, author of a new book and a series of newspaper articles detailing the activities of reputed crime figures, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. At least two gunmen opened fire on Tsankov, 30, and two other men on busy Aleksandur Stamboliiski…
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Europe and Central Asia Developments
BULGARIA | CROATIA | FRANCE | KOSOVO | ROMANIA | SLOVAKIA | TAJIKISTAN | UNITED KINGDOM | UKRAINE BULGARIA • Two unidentified gunmen killed Georgi Stoev, a popular writer and author of a series of books on the origins and rise of Bulgaria’s criminal underworld. Stoev, 35, was walking on a busy street near the…
Web site editor beaten with hammers in Sofia
New York, September 23, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday’s brutal attack on Ognian Stefanov, editor of the investigative news Web site Frognews, in Bulgaria. The editor and his family had recently received anonymous phone calls warning Stefanov to stop his journalism or face consequences, Stefanov’s deputy, Aleksandar Ivanov, told CPJ. The site publishes…
Beyond the Bulgarian umbrella
“The current situation has made it necessary for the First Main Directorate (PGU) of [Russia’s] KGB to give the First Main Directorate of [Bulgaria’s] Ministry of Internal Affairs the following special means: devices for silent, mechanical ejection of special needles, containing swift poisons. …” The above is an excerpt from Addendum 13 of the “Perspective…
Crime writer shot and killed in Sofia
New York, April 8, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns yesterday’s murder of popular writer Georgi Stoev, author of a series of books on the origins and rise of Bulgaria’s criminal underworld since the fall of communism in 1989. Stoev, 35, was on a busy street when two unidentified men stopped him near the Pliska…