Europe & Central Asia

New York, June 4, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brazen attack on investigative reporter Dusan Miljus, who covers organized crime and corruption for the popular Croatian daily Jutarnji List. According to Reuters, two unidentified men beat Miljus with baseball bats in a parking lot near his house in Zagreb on Monday evening. Miljus…

June 2008 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, May 20, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the safety of Agil Khalil, a reporter for the opposition daily Azadlyg who has been assaulted several times in the past three months. Authorities have taken no measures to guarantee his protection, according to local CPJ sources. On May 10, Khalil tried…

New York, May 15, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to veto a bill that would reverse efforts to reform Kyrgyzstan’s state television and radio company (KTR) into a public broadcaster. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed the bill on April 24. It gives the president the right to appoint KTR’s chief…

Dear Mr. President, On the third anniversary of the May 13, 2005, massacre of civilians by Uzbek security forces in the city of Andijan, the Committee to Protect Journalists–an independent, nonpartisan organization that defends journalist rights worldwide–calls on you and your government to cease your unrelenting repression of Uzbekistan’s independent and opposition media.

New York, May 9, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by continuing attacks on Agil Khalil, a reporter with the Azerbaijani opposition daily Azadlyg (Freedom). On Wednesday afternoon, at least two unidentified men tried to push Khalil onto the tracks of a Baku subway. Later that same day, two young men tried to kidnap…

Iraqi Kurdish political leaders have cultivated an image of freedom and tolerance, but that increasingly clashes with reality. As the independent press has grown more assertive, attacks and arrests have increased.

New York, May 1, 2008–An amendment that would allow the Russian courts to close media outlets for publishing defamatory statements has made its way through the parliament’s lower house, according to local press reports. On April 25, the State Duma approved on a first reading a restrictive bill that would add the dissemination of “deliberately…

May 2008 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Journalists from Sierra Leone, Russia, and the Philippines describe the failure of justice and the effect on their work.