Journalist freed
New York, January 17, 2002—Shodi Mardiev, the Uzbek radio reporter who was sentenced in 1998 to an 11-year prison term for defamation and extortion, was released under an amnesty earlier this month, according to local and international sources. The journalist’s lawyer, Khakim Bobonorov, who met with Mardiev shortly after his release, told CPJ in a…
COURT CLOSES LAST INDEPENDENT RUSSIAN TV STATION
New York, January 11, 2002—CPJ is gravely concerned over today’s ruling by the Presidium of the Highest Arbitration Court upholding the liquidation of the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Company (MNVK), parent company of Russia’s only independent, nationwide television channel, TV-6. The suit was originally lodged in September by the pension fund of LUKoil-Garant, a minority shareholder…
black mark
New York, December 25, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the prison sentence handed down today to journalist Grigory Pasko by the Military Court of the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok. The court found Pasko guilty of treason and sentenced him to four years in prison, according to local news reports and CPJ…
Covering the New War
Read first-hand accounts by journalists covering the war in Afghanistan. • December 21, 2001—The New York Times reported that on December 20, Afghan tribal fighters detained three photojournalists working for U.S. news organizations. The journalists were detained for more than one hour, apparently at the behest of U.S. Special Operations forces in the Tora Bora area….
Moscow authorities free Tajik journalist
Atovullo told CPJ, “This is a big victory for journalists in the entire post-Soviet region.” New York, July 12, 2001—Dododjon Atovullo, the Tajik journalist and opposition activist who was detained in Moscow last week while Russian authorities considered extraditing him to Tajikistan, was released today and has returned to Germany, where he is currently living…
Archive of Brief News Alerts
Fisk, his Independent colleague Justin Huggler, driver Amanullah, and translator Fayyaz Ahmed were driving past Kila Abdullah, near the Afghan border, when their car broke down. A large crowd gathered around the car and started throwing stones and hitting Huggler and Fisk. As the two reporters tried to board a bus, Fisk was dragged off,…
Prominent TV journalist assaulted in Moscow
New York, November 30, 2001—A well-known Russian television journalist was assaulted and robbed by three unknown attackers in the early morning hours of Friday, November 30, CPJ has confirmed. Ildar Zhandaryov co-hosts “Bez Protokola” (Without Protocol), one of Russia’s top-rated talk shows, and the movie review program “Interesnoye Kino” (Interesting Movie). Both shows appear on…
Another TV channel threatened with closure
The TV-6 case is strikingly similar to the recent hostile takeover of the independent television network NTV. New York, November 26, 2001—CPJ expressed grave concern over today’s ruling by a Moscow appellate court upholding the liquidation of the private Russian channel TV-6. The appeal was lodged following a September 27 ruling to liquidate TV-6’s parent…
CPJ releases exclusive interview with exiled journalist
Russian war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya fled Moscow in early October after receiving death threats in connection with her coverage of the war in Chechnya. She has settled in Vienna, Austria, where she spoke with CPJ Europe consultant Emma Gray. Until last month, Politkovskaya reported on the two-year-old war in Chechnya for the Moscow-based independent twice-weekly…