Attacks on the Press 2006: Tajikistan
TAJIKISTAN President Imomali Rakhmonov buried independent and international media under a blizzard of arbitrary licensing regulations, content restrictions, and fees. Though Rakhmonov faced no strong opposition in the November presidential election, his administration limited critical news coverage in the run-up to his victory over four little-known opponents. Regulatory agencies—wary, too, of the sort of news…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Turkey
TURKEY A wave of criminal prosecutions against the press reignited doubts about Turkey’s commitment to Western-style democracy and a free press just one year after the nation began formal talks for European Union membership. Journalists and writers found themselves the repeated targets of criminal lawsuits initiated under vaguely worded, restrictive statutes that remained on the…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Turkmenistan
TURKMENISTAN The December 21 death of Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-proclaimed president-for-life, ended a two-decade rule that plunged Turkmenistan into a dark abyss in which the state maintained absolute control over information. His sudden death from heart failure at age 66 left the nation with an indelible legacy of repression. Niyazov’s eccentric personality probably won’t be…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Ukraine
UKRAINE Press freedom advances spawned by the Orange Revolution eroded in 2006 as political power struggles yielded the return of repressive tactics and attitudes toward the media. In October, the Kyiv-based Institute for Mass Information (IMI) said the number of beatings and threats against journalists had reached 32, double the number reported in all of…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Uzbekistan
UZBEKISTAN President Islam Karimov continued his crackdown on the independent press, political opponents, and civil-society groups. As his foreign policy shifted away from the West, Karimov’s regime expelled dozens of foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations, including those supporting local media. The few remaining independent journalists were forced to choose whether to sever ties to foreign-funded media or…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Countries That Have Jailed Journalists
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 2006: Europe and Central Asia Snapshots
Armenia Germany/Poland Poland Bosnia Italy Portugal Bulgaria Lithuania Romania Croatia Macedonia Serbia Cyprus Moldova Switzerland Denmark Netherlands ARMENIA • On May 25, authorities denied independent television station A1+ a broadcasting license for the 12th time. According to press reports, the National Commission on Television and Radio justified the rejection by saying that competitors submitted stronger…
Putin pledges to protect journalists
New York, February 1, 2007—Responding to an international outcry over the murder of Russia’s top investigative reporter, President Vladimir Putin vowed today to protect the press, a pledge welcomed by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For the first time Putin also acknowledged the importance of the work of Anna Politkovskaya, whose murder in October put…
Two journalists sentenced for defaming interior minister
New York, January 31, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the criminal libel convictions of two journalists in a suit filed by Azerbaijan’s interior minister who has launched a barrage of defamation suits to silence independent media. Reporter Faramaz Novruzoglu and Editor-in-chief Sardar Alibeili of the weekly independent newspaper Nota Bene were sentenced…