Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 14, 2018
Court finds journalists guilty of making propaganda for terrorists A court on September 19 found the directors of the shuttered socialist television channel Hayatın Sesi TV guilty of making propaganda for terrorist organisations, the daily Evrensel reported.
Italian police search journalist’s home, seize electronic devices
Berlin, September 19, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an Italian prosecutor’s order to search the home of Salvo Palazzolo, a journalist for the daily newspaper La Repubblica, and seize the journalist’s electronic devices. On September 13, Italian police in Palermo, Sicily, seized Palazzolo’s mobile phone, tablet computer, and three hard drives during the…
Bulgarian police detain two investigative reporters
Bulgarian police on September 13, 2018 detained Attila Biro, editor of the Romanian investigative site Rise Project, and Dimitar Stoyanov, from Bivol, a Bulgarian investigative news website, according to reports. The investigative journalists were detained near Radomir, a town about 35 km west of the capital, Sofia, Bivol reported.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 10, 2018
Turkey detains Austrian writer Austrian citizen Max Zirngast, a contributor to several magazines and a student of political science, according to the OSCE, was detained by anti-terrorism police in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on September 11, Deutsche Welle reported. Deutsche Welle quoted a tweet of German magazine re:volt–one of his employers–as saying that Zirngast was taken…
CPJ calls on EU to keep up pressure on Hungary amid press freedom concerns
Brussels, September 12, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed the vote by members of the European Parliament in favor of a resolution against Hungary for breaching EU values, and called on the bloc to keep up pressure on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 3, 2018
Journalists in court The prosecutor in the trial of imprisoned journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, who is charged with “revealing information regarding state security that is supposed to be secret for espionage proposes,” asked the 26th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes for a life sentence, the daily Evrensel reported on September 6. Ilıcak attended the hearing via…
Uzbekistan arrests at least four bloggers over posts on religious issues
New York, September 6, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Uzbek authorities to end their harassment of bloggers covering religious issues, and to release at least four individuals arrested for their writing. Police in several Uzbek cities made arrests between August 28 and September 4, according to media reports.
Ukraine court grants prosecutors access to investigative reporter’s phone records
New York, September 4, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a Ukrainian court’s decision to grant the country’s prosecutor general’s office permission to access the phone records of Natalie Sedletska, a reporter, editor, and television presenter for Schemes, an investigative journalism project of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service.
CPJ demands release of journalists arrested over documents in Northern Ireland
New York, August 31, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on police in the United Kingdom to immediately release producer Trevor Birney and journalist Barry McCaffrey, who were arrested on suspicion of stealing confidential documents today, according to the Belfast Telegraph and other news reports.