Europe & Central Asia

  
Letters

CPJ calls on European Olympic Committees to engage with Azerbaijan on press freedom

Dear President Patrick Hickey: I am writing on behalf of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent international press freedom organization, to call your attention to the dismal climate for press freedom in Azerbaijan, which is scheduled to host the first-ever European Games on June 12.

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Letters

In Crimea, press freedom deteriorates at a rapid pace

Dear President Vladimir Putin: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, is writing to express its concern about the deteriorating climate for press freedom in Crimea.

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Features & Analysis
A flag flutters over a Luxembourg city street, above. French journalist Edouard Perrin, who helped expose the LuxLeaks tax revelations, has been indicted in the country. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

Reporter who broke LuxLeaks story faces charges in Luxembourg

The French journalist who helped break the LuxLeaks scandal, which exposed a large-scale, state-blessed system of tax avoidance in placid Luxembourg late last year, was indicted on April 23. A statement from the Luxembourg prosecutor’s office accused Edouard Perrin of “being the co-author, if not an accomplice, in the infractions committed by a former PricewaterhouseCoopers…

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Attacks On The Press

Foreword

In Pakistan, an unknown gunman shoots a news anchor multiple times. No one is arrested for the crime, though arrest warrants are issued against the journalist–for his reporting.

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Attacks On The Press
A journalist holds a placard at the headquarters of Zaman daily newspaper in Istanbul on December 14, 2014. Turkish police raided media outlets close to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, including Zaman, and detained 23 people. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)

Finding new ways to censor journalists in Turkey

The flood was foretold, and seemed inevitable. Even I, with my limited resources as a journalist and media monitor, raised the alarm years ago.

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Attacks On The Press
A protester in London, dressed as a caricature of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, burns a government report on media abuses while another wearing a mask depicting Prime Minister David Cameron sits tied to a chair, November 29, 2012. (AP/Sang Tan)

Overzealous British media prompt overzealous backlash

In 2010, Andrew Norfolk was driving to an appointment when he heard a radio news report about a gang of men who had been convicted of the systematic sexual abuse of a teenager.

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Attacks On The Press
Graffiti attributed to the street artist Banksy is seen near the offices of Britain's eavesdropping agency, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, in Cheltenham, England, on April 16, 2014. (Reuters/Eddie Keogh)

Surveillance forces journalists to think and act like spies

Once upon a time, a journalist never gave up a confidential source. When someone comes forward, anonymously, to inform the public, it’s better to risk time incarcerated than give them up. This ethical responsibility was also a practical and professional necessity. If you promise anonymity, you’re obliged to deliver. If you can’t keep your word,…

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Attacks On The Press
Mario Costeja Gonzalez speaks on his mobile phone outside a court in Barakaldo, Spain, on June 25, 2013. As a result of a lawsuit he filed against Google, Internet companies can be made to remove irrelevant or excessive personal information from search engine results, Europe's top court ruled. (Reuters/Vincent West)

Two continents, two courts, two approaches to privacy

At 3:20 a.m. on August 24, 2014, the strongest earthquake in a quarter-century rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, causing damage widely estimated at between $300 million and $1 billion.

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Attacks On The Press
Supporters of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party raise flares as they celebrate polls results in Thessaloniki, Greece, on May 6, 2012. (Reuters/Grigoris Siamidis)

Journalists grapple with increasing power of European extremists

Athens, May 6, 2012. Journalists attending Golden Dawn’s triumphal election night news conference are ordered to stand up when the group’s leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, enters the room. “Rise up! Rise up! Show your respect!” barks the master of ceremonies, an agitated black-clad, bald-headed toughie. The journalists who refuse the injunction are asked to leave the…

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Attacks On The Press
Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, right, talks with his brother and co-defendant Oleg inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow on December 30, 2014. (Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin)

The death of glasnost: How Russia’s attempt at openness failed

Before Maidan, before Tahrir Square, before the “color revolutions” that overthrew entrenched autocrats, there was the Soviet revolution of the late 1980s.

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