CPJ makes headway in cases in Russia, Georgia
Amid ongoing attacks on journalists, CPJ advocacy in Europe and Central Asia has generated some positive results. Earlier this month, a CPJ delegation met with Russian and European officials, who promised to revisit 17 journalist murders in Russia since 2000. The declared commitment to reverse Russia’s grim record of impunity came after we presented our…
CPJ to honor five international journalists
New York, September 23, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor courageous journalists from Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan with its 2009 International Press Freedom Awards at a ceremony in November. Mustafa Haji Abdinur of Somalia, Naziha Réjiba of Tunisia, Eynulla Fatullayev of Azerbaijan, and J.S. Tissainayagam of Sri Lanka have faced imprisonment, threats…
Eynulla Fatullayev, Azerbaijan, Realny Azerbaijan
Awards 2009 |Announcement of the Awards | J.S. Tissainayagam | Néziha Réjiba | Mustafa Haji Abdinur | Anthony Lewis When Eynulla Fatullayev’s friend and colleague Elmar Huseynov was murdered in 2005, the journalist set out to find the killers. After his reporting raised the possibility of government complicity in the killing, Fatullayev found himself in…
Russia, EU tell CPJ they will act on Russian murders
On September 15, a CPJ delegation released a special report in Moscow on impunity in journalist killings committed in Russia under the country’s current leadership. The report, Anatomy of Injustice, garnered an unusual amount of attention from the Russian media. Our press conference at the Independent Press Center was packed with journalists, both domestic and…
Kazakh authorities seize embattled weekly’s print run
New York, September 18, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the seizure of the print run of one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Kazakhstan, which is set to take control of a leading security and human rights organization. The country will become chair of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe in…
Russian journalist faces forgery charges in Georgia
New York, September 18, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Georgian authorities to drop criminal charges against the Tbilisi bureau chief for the Russian news agency RIA Novosti and allow him to work without fear of harassment. According to RIA Novosti, Besik Pipia is facing up to three years in prison if convicted on a…
Journalists under threat: The psychology of sacrifice
Over the summer, as a book I’d written about the lives of murdered journalists went to press, a crusading human rights reporter from the Russian republic of Chechnya was shot dead. I was not surprised by the details of her murder, just as the Chechen reporter was not surprised she’d become a target for execution:…
CPJ delegation meets with Russian Investigative Committee
A delegation, led by CPJ Board Member Kati Marton, and including Senior Advisor Jean-Paul Marthoz and Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova, had a two-hour-long substantive meeting today with 11 officials from Russia’s Investigative Committee, including Petros Gaibyan, the senior investigator in charge of the probes into Anna Politkovskaya’s and Paul Klebnikov’s murder…