Italy / Europe & Central Asia

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the rights of journalists worldwide, is deeply concerned about the fate of Mario Spezi, a veteran crime journalist imprisoned in the central Italian city of Perugia.

Attacks and developments throughout the region

New York, May 27, 2005—Six police officers searched the headquarters of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading national daily based in Milan. The officers spent at least two hours in the newsroom Wednesday evening, looking for documents that the daily had used as part of its earlier report on the use of Italian pistols by Iraq…

MAY 25, 2005 Posted: May 31, 2005 Staff, Corriere della Sera ATTACKED Six police officers searched the headquarters of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading national daily based in Milan. The officers spent at least two hours in the newsroom, looking for documents that the daily had used as part of its earlier report on the…

Overview by Alex Lupis Authoriatarian rulers strengthened their hold on power in many former Soviet republics in 2004. Their secretive, centralized governments aggressively suppressed all forms of independent activity, from journalism and human rights monitoring to religious activism and political opposition.

Edited transcript of remarks, 5/5/04 Carnegie Council Conversation (Merrill House, New York City).

Two years after the end of a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, journalists in both countries are struggling to do their jobs in increasingly repressive environments.

While the press is largely free within Israel proper, the country’s military assault on the Occupied Territories fueled a sharp deterioration in press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza during much of 2002. Despite vocal international protest, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed an assortment of press freedom abuses, ranging from banning press access…

New York, November 19, 2002—An appeals court in the central Italian city of Perugia announced this week that it had convicted former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, 83, and sentenced him to 24 years in prison for ordering the murder of muckraking journalist Mino Pecorelli in 1979. Pecorelli, who was preparing to publish compromising information about…

See list of recent news alerts about Israel and the West Bank   Click on links for more details: May 24, 2002. Suhaib Jadallah Salem, Reuters: Detained April 30, 2002. Youssry al-Jamal, Reuters: Arrested April 24, 2002. Mazen Dana, Reuters, and Hussam Abu Alan, Agence France-Presse: Harassed April 22, 2002. 17 Palestinian and foreign journalists:…