Europe & Central Asia

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with 49 other organizations, sent a letter on March 25 urging the European Commission to adopt an ambitious approach while preparing its draft proposal for the European Democracy Shield. In 2024, the European Commission announced the European Democracy Shield, an EU-led initiative designed to reinforce democracy by addressing foreign…

Istanbul, March 24, 2025—Turkish authorities should release the journalists taken into police custody during widespread protests and end hostile behavior towards the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. Protests erupted and grew in multiple cities across Turkey following the government crackdown on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was due to be selected as…

Berlin, March 24, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists and six other international media freedom organizations expressed concern over revelations that Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) physically surveilled and wiretapped investigative journalist Victor Ilie and called for Romanian authorities to investigate the agency’s actions. On March 17, the journalist revealed that he had been under surveillance…

Istanbul, March 24, 2025—Turkish authorities should immediately cancel the house arrest of award-winning investigative journalist and writer İsmail Saymaz over his reporting on the 2013 Gezi Park protests and stop using the judiciary to muzzle the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On March 19, police took Saymaz, a freelance journalist and TV…

Editor’s note: On April 1, President Mikheil Kavelashvili signed the Foreign Agents Registration Act into law. New York, March 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists expresses deep concern after Georgia’s parliament on March 18 approved a second reading of a foreign agent bill that will most likely become law as early as April, creating an existential threat…

March 13, 2025—Turkey’s new cybersecurity law could criminalize legitimate reporting on cybersecurity incidents because of its overly broad and vague language, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. The law, passed on Wednesday, criminalizes reporting about an online data leak or sharing that report unless the authorities have confirmed the incident. It imposes a prison…

On February 9, reporter Tolga Güney welcomed a CPJ representative into the apartment he shares with several colleagues in central Izmir, Turkey. It was his 362nd day under house arrest while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. “I believe I’m in this situation for doing my job,” he said over a glass of tea. Güney is…

New York, March 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Georgian court decision to proceed with the trial of media manager Mzia Amaglobeli and keep her in detention, following an altercation with a local police chief.  In a March 4 pretrial hearing, Georgia’s western Batumi City Court rejected motions to release Amaglobeli, director of…

Berlin, March 4, 2025–-The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-majority territory Republika Srpska to revoke a “foreign agent” law that poses a significant threat to media freedom and civil society. “Republika Srpska authorities should immediately suspend any plans to enforce this ‘foreign agent’ legislation, which mirrors restrictive measures used…

New York, March 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijan’s February 20 arrest of Nurlan Gahramanli and February 28 arrest of Fatima Mövlamli — both freelance reporters for Germany-based outlet Meydan TV — on currency smuggling charges. “The latest arrests in Azerbaijan’s unprecedented media crackdown show more clearly than ever that authorities’ real goal…