Europe & Central Asia

CPJ Update Committee to Protect JournalistsMarch 17, 2006 In meeting with CPJ, Colombian president vows support for beleaguered provincial press

MARCH 10, 2006 Irina Ovsy, Sotsialisticheskaya Kharkovshchina ATTACKED Two unidentified men attacked Ovsy, editor of Sotsialisticheskaya Kharkovshchina, weekly newspaper of the For Union political coalition, at the entrance to her apartment building, according to local press reports. Ovsy was leaving for work at around 10 a.m. when the assailants pushed her against a wall, told…

New York, March 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the latest government crackdown against independent journalists in the days before Sunday’s presidential election. Police arrested at least four journalists this week, and local courts handed them sentences of five to 10 days in jail on charges of hooliganism. Andrei Pochobut, editor of the magazine…

New York, March 16, 2006—The Foreign Ministry has invoked restrictive new regulations to reprimand three correspondents working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, escalating pressure on the few remaining local journalists working for foreign media, according to international press reports. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry revoked the accreditation of Deutsche Welle correspondent Obid Shabanov…

By Robert Mahoney As Turkish nationalist resist European tilt, free expression is a victim.

New York, March 15, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Uzbek government’s tightening of controls over local and foreign journalists working for foreign state-funded media. The cabinet approved regulations February 24 giving the Foreign Ministry wide discretion to issue formal warnings to foreign correspondents, revoke their accreditation and visas, and expel them.…

New York, March 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Belarusian authorities’ escalating harassment of the country’s few independent newspapers as Sunday’s presidential election approaches. Four newspapers based in the capital, Minsk, have been forced to interrupt publication less than a week before the balloting in which incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko seeks re-election, according to local…

New York, March 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on bail of the 16-year-old son of murdered journalist Veronika Cherkasova. Anton Filimonov was freed Monday from the Minsk detention center where he had been held since December 27, local media reported. Although he was formally charged with forging currency, Filimonov was pressured…