Europe & Central Asia

  

Dangerous Assignments 20th Anniversary: Jailhouse Memories

Living in an Argentine prison during the Falklands War.

Read More ›

State takeover of news outlets threatens press freedom

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, is deeply concerned about the takeover by Gazprom-Media of news outlets previously owned by the Media-Most company. Gazprom-Media is a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-run gas monopoly.

Read More ›

Columnist on trial for “inciting hatred” Fehmi Koru Faces Up to Four Years in Prison for 1999 Commentary Aired on Turkish TV Station

Good evening respected viewers, The placard carried by a girl from Marmara University and bearing the words “Wasn’t 7.4 convincing enough?” caused many tempers to fray. A leaflet distributed at Ankara’s Kocatepe Mosque during a service to commemorate the death of Bediuzzaman Sait Nursi added further fuel to the flames. And when one of the…

Read More ›

Gazprom occupies NTV headquarters

New York, April 17, 2001 — After a tense 11-day standoff, the state-dominated Gazprom corporation succeeded in occupying the headquarters of NTV, formerly Russia’s only independent national television station, according to international press reports and local sources. At 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, Boris Jordan, a controversial American financier appointed by Gazprom to head…

Read More ›

Government wields criminal libel laws against opposition press

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the recent decision of the Almaty prosecutor’s office to drop criminal defamation charges against Bigeldy Gabdullin, editor of the opposition weekly XXI Vek. However, we remain deeply concerned about your government’s frequent use of politically-motivated criminal charges to harass opposition journalists.

Read More ›

Parliament may abolish criminal libel

New York, April 13, 2001 — The Kyrgyz Parliament is currently considering the repeal of the republic’s notorious criminal libel statutes. A parliamentary committee recently circulated draft legislation to exclude articles 127 and 128 (for libel and insult respectively) from the Criminal Code. On April 4, committee chairman Azimbek Beknazarov told local reporters that the…

Read More ›

Russia Briefing: Domino Effect

The Kremlin’s boardroom coup against NTV isn’t just bad for independent journalism in Russia. Authoritarian leaders across the former Soviet Union have just been handed a new strategy against troublesome local media.

Read More ›

Russia: Managing the Messengers

The first year of Vladimir Putin’s presidency has been a trying time for Russian civil society generally and for the media in particular. The new president has steadfastly worked toward Soviet-style centralized control over the vast country, battling Yeltsin-era oligarchs, wayward regional leaders, and non-governmental organizations. All this activity has been undertaken under the Orwellian…

Read More ›

Journalist killed on Kosovo-Macedonia BorderCPJ Calls For Investigation Into Source Of Attacks

New York, March 29, 2001 — CPJ deplores the death of a British journalist this morning in the Kosovo village of Krivenik, near the Macedonian border. Kerem Lawton, 30, a British national and producer for Associated Press Television News, died from shrapnel wounds sustained when a shell struck his car. At least two other civilians…

Read More ›

Journalist Grigory Pasko faces second espionage trial

New York, March 21, 2001 ­ The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the ongoing legal persecution of Russian military journalist Grigory Pasko, whose second trial on espionage charges begins tomorrow in a closed Vladivostok military court. Pasko worked for Boyevaya Vakhta, a newspaper owned by the Pacific Fleet. On November 20,…

Read More ›