NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER MURDERED
New York, September 24, 2001—Eduard Markevich, editor and publisher of a local newspaper in the town of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region, was found dead last Tuesday night, according to press reports. He had been shot in the back. Markevich, 29, edited Novyy Reft, a paper that was often critical of local officials. The journalist’s colleagues told…
On anniversary of journalist’s disappearance, CPJ supports calls for international inquiry
New York, September 18, 2001—One year after the disappearance of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze, CPJ joins Gongadze’s widow in calling for an international investigation into the unsolved case. “President Kuchma and other cabinet officials have spent an entire year obstructing this inquiry,” said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. “Journalists in Ukraine will not feel safe…
CPJ condemns pre-election press freedom abuses
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by your government’s relentless attacks on the independent press during the run-up to the September 9 presidential election. Without the unfettered circulation of ideas and exchange of information, free and democratic elections are not possible. Your recent actions against the press indicate a strong likelihood that next week’s elections will be neither free nor fair.
Cameraman assaulted in city park
New York, August 30, 2001—Aleksey Movsesyan, a 23-year-old cameraman with the independent television station Efir-1 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, was assaulted on the evening of Sunday, August 26, CPJ has confirmed. An assailant struck Movsesyan with a hard object between 11 p.m. and midnight while the journalist was walking in a park…
Government forces closure of independent TV station
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by your government’s unrelenting harassment of the independent Baku station ABA Television. The station recently closed its doors, apparently under government pressure, and Tax Ministry officials have since confiscated some of ABA’s equipment.