Attacks on the Press 2010: Belarus
Top Developments • Authorities wage post-election crackdown, raiding newsrooms and jailing reporters. • New Internet law requires registration of sites, tracking of user activity. Key Statistic 20: Journalists detained as government silences coverage of election protests. In a massive post-election crackdown, authorities raided news outlets and detained at least 20 journalists covering protests over a…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Kazakhstan
Top Developments • New laws restrict online news media, shield government officials from scrutiny. • OSCE chairman Kazakhstan undermines organization with repression at home. Key Statistic 44 Defamation complaints filed in first six months of 2010, many of them by government officials. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s government failed to deliver the press freedom reforms it had…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Kyrgyzstan
Top Developments • Bakiyev censors news media in a failed attempt to hold power. • Amid ethnic clashes, Uzbek journalists and outlets targeted for reprisals. Key Statistic 2: Ethnic Uzbek journalists imprisoned as of December 1. In a year of political revolt and deadly ethnic turmoil, successive presidential administrations cracked down on the press, using…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Russia
Top Developments • Some progress in journalist murder probes, but attacks continue with impunity. • FSB given broad detention powers in measure that targets critical media. Key Statistic 5: Unsolved journalist murder cases that Russia’s top investigators pledged to reopen. The nation’s top investigative agency reopened a series of unsolved journalist murders and reported progress…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Serbia
Top Developments • Authorities win convictions in anti-press attacks, improve access to information. • Constitutional Court strikes down restrictive media ownership regulations. Key Statistic 3: Suspects convicted and sentenced to prison for threats against B92 journalist. Serbian authorities stepped up law enforcement efforts in attacks against journalists, winning convictions in high-profile cases, even as they…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Turkey
Top Developments • Authorities use anti-terror, defamation, security laws to prosecute journalists. • EU criticizes press record, citing prosecutions, insufficient legal guarantees. Key Statistic 0: Convictions obtained in the 2007 slaying of editor Hrant Dink. Authorities paraded journalists into court on anti-terror, criminal defamation, and state security charges as they tried to suppress critical news…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Ukraine
Top Developments • Provincial reporters targeted in a series of attacks; editor reported missing. • Television journalists continue to face heavy political influence. Key Statistic 1: Mastermind identified in Gongadze murder. Prosecutors stir controversy by blaming only a dead official for the plot. The disappearance of a critical editor, a series of violent attacks, and…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Uzbekistan
Top Developments • State deploys analysts to build sweeping criminal defamation cases. • Numerous regional and international news websites are blocked. Key Statistic 6: Journalists in prison on December 1, the highest figure in the region. Even as President Islam Karimov was calling for more “active” news reporting, his government was rolling out a new…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Europe and Central Asia Developments
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2010 • Main Index Europe and Central Asia Regional Analysis: • On the Runet, Old-School Repression Meets New Country Summaries • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Belarus • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Russia • Serbia • Ukraine • Uzbekistan • Other nations CROATIA In November, the Municipal Court in Zagreb convicted six…
Paris and Brussels mobilize for Hrant Dink murder trial
On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, was gunned down in front of his office building in Istanbul. The murder sent shockwaves through the Turkish and international human rights and press freedom communities. It also triggered a mobilization of thousands of Turkish intellectuals, activists, and citizens that…