Human Rights Watch executive denied entry visa
New York, February 20, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by Russia’s failure to issue an entry visa to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director Kenneth Roth. Roth intended to travel to Russia on Tuesday to hold a press conference to present his group’s report on obstacles nongovernmental organizations face in the region. This…
In Moscow, second Klebnikov murder trial starts tomorrow
New York, February 14, 2007–The second jury trial of two Chechen men charged in the July 2004 slaying of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov will start tomorrow in Moscow. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges court officials to make the proceedings open to the public, to ensure the suspects are present in court, and to…
In Uzbekistan, journalist arrested and charged with smuggling illegal literature
New York, February 13, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the January 22 detention of an independent journalist and human rights researcher in Tashkent. Umida Niyazova covered politics and human rights in Uzbekistan for the Central Asia news Web site Oasis, a project of the Moscow-based media watchdog Center for Journalism in Extreme…
CPJ condemns restrictions on journalists covering Sunday’s presidential vote in Turkmenistan
New York, February 9, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns restrictions on the foreign and domestic journalists covering the Turkmen presidential election on February 11. While voters will cast their ballots for a president for the first time since 1992 on Sunday, CPJ said the outcome is all but assured. The six presidential contenders, including…
Another paper raided over ‘pirated’ software
New York, February 8, 2008—For the second time in a week, Russian police have raided an independent newspaper and seized its computers, accusing it of using pirated Microsoft software. The latest incident was on Wednesday, when police in St. Petersburg raided the offices of the weekly Minuty Veka and its publishing house, seizing its computers.…
RUSSIA: Court orders Kommersant to pay damages to Chechen leader
February 7, 2007 Posted February 23, 2007 Kommersant LEGAL ACTION Popular Russian daily Kommersant was ordered to publish a court verdict and to pay 10,000 rubles (US$382) in damages to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for a July 2006 critical article, according to international and local press reports.
2006 prison census: 134 journalists jailed
ALGERIA: 2 Djamel Eddine Fahassi, Alger Chaîne III IMPRISONED: May 6, 1995 Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station Alger Chaîne III and a contributor to several Algerian newspapers, including the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Forqane, was abducted near his home in the al-Harrache suburb of the capital, Algiers, by four…
Attacks on the Press in 2006: Preface
By Anderson CooperSilence. When a journalist is killed, more often than not, there is silence. In Russia, someone followed Anna Politkovskaya home and quietly shot her to death in her apartment building. The killer muffled the sound of the gun with a silencer. Her murder made headlines around the world in October, but from the…
Police confiscate Russian newspaper’s computers
New York, February 5, 2008—On Friday, police in the southern Russian city of Togliatti raided the newsroom of an independent weekly, confiscating all 20 of its computers, newspaper staff told CPJ. Special agents from the police department for high-tech crimes told the staff of Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye (Togliatti Review) that they were confiscating the…
Attacks on the Press in 2006: Introduction
By Joel SimonAs Venezuelan elections approached in November, President Hugo Chávez accused news broadcasters of engaging in a “psychological war to divide, weaken, and destroy the nation.” Their broadcast licenses, he said, could be pulled–no idle threat in a country where a vague 2004 media law allows the government to shut down stations for work…