Scorecard: KYRGYZSTAN
Positives: Bakiyev administration shows a more tolerant attitude toward press coverage. President agrees to transform state broadcaster KTR into an independent public station. Negatives: Administration names loyalists to top state media positions, pressures media to tone down coverage. Attacks on journalists and press facilities continue. Bakiyev fails to follow through on pledge to decriminalize libel.
Scorecard: UKRAINE
Positives: Assaults on journalists decline slightly. Suspects charged, tried in Gongadze slaying. Government stops issuing directives dictating news coverage. Advertising market is growing. Negatives: Judicial system remains politicized. Prosecution in Gongadze case does not include suspected masterminds. Pending bill would make libel a criminal offense. Yushchenko has not followed through on promises to reform state…
Journalist freed in Uzbekistan, but conviction stands
New York, May 8, 2007—A Tashkent appellate panel set independent Uzbek journalist Umida Niyazova free from prison today, reducing the jail term handed down last week to a suspended sentence. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Niyazova’s release but expressed concern at her standing conviction. “We are relieved that our colleague Umida Niyazova is free…
Journalists jailed for inciting religious hatred
New York, May 4, 2007—A court in Azerbaijan jailed two independent journalists today over an article that said Islam was hampering economic and political progress. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which this week named Azerbaijan as one of the top 10 countries where press freedom has deteriorated, condemned the conviction. Reporter Rafiq Tagi and editor…
Uzbek journalist sentenced to seven years in prison
New York, May 1, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the seven-year prison sentence handed down today to independent Uzbek journalist Umida Niyazova by a judge in Tashkent after a summary trial that was closed to the press and most of the public. Niyazova was convicted on charges related to her reporting on human rights…
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…